Dan, We just opened our space on Monday, and we used the Charter Member concept to help validate our numbers prior to signing our lease.
Our offer was that any charter members who made a commitment (verbal only) to a particular rate for six months would receive a 10% discount on the first month and the security deposit. In our case that meant: $25/mo = $45 charter member rate $175/mo = $315 charter member rate $275/mo = $495 charter member rate This worked very well for us in terms of getting people's commitments. All but one of the people who committed to the charter member rate ended up being a paying member. I think this approach helped us meet our numbers and gain critical mass during our critical transition period from "free" Jelly-ing at the coffeeshop two days a week to "paid" coworking at our new site. Your mileage may vary but I'd say charter membership is worth considering. We're also going to make a plaque and maybe some t-shirts with the names of the charter members. Best, Dave -- Beehive Baltimore LLC Community Coworking in Baltimore On Feb 5, 11:55 am, Elevation Brand <[email protected]> wrote: > Hey Everyone, > > So we are making progress here in Tampa for establishing a coworking > facility. We are actively on the hunt for space and expect to have a > home targeted in the next 30 days. In the meantime, I was wondering > how other facilities handled charter members during the start up > phase? Did you ignore them completely and make it a mad rush for the > door? What level of discount did you provide? Any cap on the number? > > Our initial thoughts are that we would extend charter member > opportunities to the folks that have been regulars to both our Jelly > sessions and our free entrepreneurial workshops. Included with charter > membership would be a modest discount for the first few months of > membership (monthly subscriptions only). As we are anticipating 10-15 > regular working desks available at launch we're thinking of capping > charter members at 20. > > We've hinted around a bit to some of our true believers and they are > all over us to get involved. Any other landmines we should be > avoiding? > > As always, thanks for your council and support. > > Dan Davie > @elevationbrand, @ideafield --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
