On 26 Mar 2008, at 22:41, Tara Hunt wrote:

> It sounds counter-intuitive, but we found that the more 'flexible'  
> we made a membership, the less people were likely to use them. Now  
> we have two memberships: you have  desk or you are a drop-in. :) Our  
> desks are all full and we have a waiting list.

+1 on this, I found the greater flexibility is in removing the need  
for coworkers to have to think too hard about what option and payments  
etc they have to choose so we settled on 3 offerings;

Day Tripper: occasional and only during standard office hours (which  
is pretty lax in Brighton). No fee, but it is nice if you put  
something back in (whether in kind, a donation or just helping out  
another coworker).

Regular Joe: 2-3 times a week during standard office hours. Paid  
subscription a month in advance $120 + Tax (60 GBP).

Early Bird / Night Owl: 3-4 times a week, need to come and go outside  
of standard office hours, get own keys. Paid subscription $200 + Tax  
(100 GBP) plus key deposit $100.

We don't track their time in detail it just adds overhead for us and  
the members, the easiest way is to trust to people honour and it is  
easy to spot if somebody is abusing the system. With a couple of  
regular standing subscriptions people know what they are paying, know  
the deal and don't have to spend any additional time during the month  
thinking about what they are paying for coworking, the more choices  
you give people, the more time they have to spend thinking about which  
choice they are going to make.

So in a nutshell, I say, condense things down to the simplest couple  
of choices that people can make once a month or even offer 3 or 6  
month subscriptions and then add to that flexibility so people don't  
feel they have to closely track their usage.

James
>
>
> T
>
> On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 3:37 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> > wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> We (Station C) have been open for nearly 2 months and we're wondering
> if maybe a change in our plan structure would make sense. I'll detail
> them further down this message -- and our new idea -- and you can give
> me your opinion based on those details but my basic question would be:
> most of you don't offer hourly plans for desks. Why?
>
> ----
>
> Right now we have resident members who have a reserved desk and full
> time access ($330/month), we'll keep those.
>
> We also have Flex 14 and Flex 28 memberships who pay $143 and $236 a
> month for 14 and 28 hours a week between 9am and 6pm, to be booked
> online (through email currently).
>
> Flex signups are a bit slower than expected (although we have more
> residents so we are a bit ahead of estimates overall) so we're
> thinking of retooling the Flex plans to Flex Points where members
> would buy bundles of points, something like 200 at $3.25/pt and use
> them whenever, again booked online, expiring after 6 months. 1 point
> for one desk hour, tbd number of points for meeting and conference
> room hours. We would also have smaller and larger bundles but the 200
> would give members something similar to our current Flex 14 with the
> added bonus of more freedom, of skipping a week for a vacation or
> coming every day when in crunch mode.
>
> Space isn't an issue, logistics neither since we have the webapp for
> booking in the works anyway. The big disadvantage for us would be no
> recurrent cash entry or at least more spreadout and maybe more
> uncertain renewals as well as, in theory, the potential for more
> booking conflicts if everyone "crunches at the same time".
>
> The big advantage would be for members who don't have to worry wetter
> they'll use 14 hours every week, the setup would be even more flexible
> for them. We would be "gambling'" that more flexibility and simplicity
> means more members and if we're right everyone would be happy.
>
> Last thing; we are also considering expanding business hours nights
> and saturday.
>
> Thoughts? Questions?
>
>
> Thx
> Patrick
>
> http://station-c.com
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> tara 'miss rogue' hunt
> coFounder
> Citizen Agency (www.citizenagency.com)
> blog: www.horsepigcow.com
> phone: 415-694-1951
> fax: 415-727-5335
> >


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