I totally agree with the spirit of what's being said here, but I just want to reinforce that it's never too late to "right the ship" after going about things the wrong way. We launched our coworking space in the worst possible way: Signed the lease ourselves, fixed it up while not telling too many people about it, and opened the doors just expecting people to flock to us. After four months of loneliness, it was clear that we weren't going about it the right way, and we changed tack to focus more on building a community rather than filling a space. In the eight months that followed, we built up a thriving, supportive core of nearly two dozen members and, as a side effect, have outgrown our original space
If I had it to do over again, I would absolutely do it differently—that said, we've still managed to get to a good place despite our initial missteps. It's never too late to turn things around once you get your focus where it should be. Andy Soell The Salt Mines http://saltmines.us On Thursday, November 7, 2013 8:25:57 AM UTC-5, Trevor Twining wrote: > > Hey all, > > I just want to reinforce what Alex is saying. The community building model > isn't just the best approach to use when setting up a space. It's the only > model that creates the transformative effects most of us are looking for > when setting up such a space in the first place. > > Cowork Niagara has been using this model. Over the past 18 months, we've > been gathering regularly at a local cafe Wed afternoons. > > We started out with three people (!). We now have a group of well over 100 > that are loosely connected and interested. Of those, 50 come out to a few > meetups a quarter. But we've found our core of 30 people who come out > almost weekly and have agreed that they want to get a dedicated space. > We're sourcing real estate now, and just getting our corporation papers > filed (co-ops are a great model for this financially, btw). > > Once you start working with that many people, it is literally amazing and > seems almost magical how the power of the group to solve problems takes > over. To be honest, while at first I thought the idea of community-first > was nice but not necessary, it wasn't until I was immersed in it that I > realized just how powerful this approach is. The difficult part is that it > takes time, and most people don't seem to realize just how much time it > takes. > > Anyway, kind of rambling right now, but all this to say that if I hadn't > listed to Alex and others talking about community first, we wouldn't be > where we are today. > > TT > > Trevor Twining > Cowork Niagara > > > On Thu, Nov 7, 2013 at 4:33 AM, Susan Jones > <su...@readysetstartup.com<javascript:> > > wrote: > >> Alex, I'm just launching a once a week coworking day at my house for 5 >> weeks before the end of the year. This is to draw together some of the >> people I've been talking to about coworking and develop some community. a >> bit of a pilot project in community development if you like. :-) Do you >> think I should be asking people to make a (small) financial commitment at >> this stage to participate for these 5 weeks? >> Thanks >> Susan >> >> On Thursday, 7 November 2013 01:28:30 UTC+11, Alex Hillman wrote: >>> >>> Not market research, but community building. It serves both purposes and >>> solves countless other problems at the same time: from location selection >>> to financing and more. >>> >>> Here are a bunch of resources and recommended reading on the topic that >>> I've compiled over the years and share most often: >>> http://betterwork.co/recommended-reading >>> >>> -Alex >>> >>> -- >>> /ah >>> indyhall.org >>> betterwork.co >>> >>> >>> On Wed, Nov 6, 2013 at 2:13 PM, Adam Warnke <warnk...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>>> Hey guys, >>>> I am in the idea phase for a coworking space in Alabama. I want to >>>> know if any of you did any market research before starting up or if you >>>> just did it and hoped there was enough people who had a need for you >>>> space. >>>> If you did do some market research, what all did you do? >>>> Thanks! >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com >>>> --- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "Coworking" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>> an email to coworking+...@googlegroups.com. >>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >>>> >>> >>> -- >> Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Coworking" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to coworking+...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> > > > > -- > Trevor Twining > skype:trevortwining > -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
