Hi Folks, long overdue thanks for all the replies on this. They were EXTREMELY helpful.
Best, Will On Friday, June 12, 2015 at 12:59:23 PM UTC+2, TatjanaRose wrote: > I can't tell you all how timely this thread is for me! I currently manage > a coworking space in Bath and we have recently noticed an increased > engagement from our members which is great however, this has also > highlighted one of key issues - lack of team space for growing companies. > We thought we had this problem last year when members complained about lack > of space, this turned out to be more of a perception issue and was quickly > fixed by rearranging the main coworking room and introducing additional > desks. However, the problem has arisen again, and we are now having to turn > away teams of 3+ as we don't have the space at our current premises. > > My colleague and I are now looking at opening a second space, one of my > concerns has been though would it make more sense to relocate the entire > existing community if possible rather than opening and managing two spaces > in the same city? > > One of the reasons I think it may not be an issue is that the new space > would have its own identity and offering, I imagine that it would offer a > higher percentage of team and fixed desk space, with those users encouraged > to use the meeting rooms at the original hub, helping to link the two > communities together. With the city we occupy being so small I can't see > members moving to the new space due to location either, but I can see that > several members would move BUT better to keep them in our community in a > new space rather than lose them to a competitor. > > I'm just keen to understand if a separate identity/offering is enough to > make sure that both spaces can maintain growth? > > Thanks > > > On Wednesday, June 10, 2015 at 5:24:10 PM UTC+1, Will Bennis, Locus > Workspace wrote: >> >> Dear All, >> >> *The challenge: *I need help figuring out how (or whether) to save a >> coworking space that lost it's key ingredient for success (it's community). >> >> I hope/think it provides a nice example of a more recent kind of problem >> that existing coworking spaces will be facing as this kind of business >> matures. I also think it provides a good lesson about potential dangers of >> expanding even when your first location is a success. >> >> *Here's the story:* >> >> About two and a half years ago my (small) coworking space was full and I >> had to decide whether to expand or to just stop accepting new members. Long >> story short, I decided to expand. >> >> I thought about how many members I'd need at the new space and how many >> would move from the old space and it seemed to me like both spaces would be >> sustainable soon after opening the new space as long as growth continued as >> it had been for the short term. I expected growth to be a little faster >> with the added value of an extra location in a great new neighborhood, so I >> thought I was being safe(ish). A couple months after making that choice the >> original space went from being full to being less than half full. It no >> longer had the sense of community/buzz that made it an attractive coworking >> space in the first place. >> >> *Back to the challenge: *is there anything I can do now to restore the >> missing key element of community once the community is lost other than to >> close the one space and focus my attention on making the second space the >> best coworking space I can make it? >> >> *Some important factors in thinking about the problem:* >> >> - *Please accept the premise *that this "threshold community size" >> really is the key difference in whether this space is attractive to new >> members (even though it's definitely a simplification). >> - *Couldn't I just repeat the formula that made it a successful >> coworking space in the first place? *When I first opened, I already >> believed a largely-empty coworking space had only a fraction of the value >> of a full coworking space, and so I set my prices, very explicitly, at >> half >> the price I expected to charge when the space became more lively. This >> worked well. People knew I would increase the prices and they knew they >> were getting a great deal to be an early supporter, and I got a lot of >> early activity for that reason. When I doubled the prices, there were no >> big hiccups. But I cannot reverse that now for a few reasons. Most >> importantly, I have another coworking space that is doing well at the >> prices I currently charge (and I am not over-charging), as well as many >> members who work from the non-sustainable space who paid full price. >> There's no simple way I can see to dramatically lower the prices at one >> location to get it back to the threshold community size without either >> alienating a lot of existing members or giving them back a lot of their >> already-paid membership dues which would be a big financial burden (at >> least over the short term). Plus it would creat a strange double-pricing >> structure for two spaces that otherwise are part of the same community. >> - *Why don't I ask my members for a solution? *I have, but so far no >> one has had a good solution other than to just close the space, even >> though >> many people would be very upset by it. >> - *Why did I lose so many members after the expansion (& isn't that >> the real problem)? *The answer is a lot less straight forward--and >> was a lot less predictable--than you might think. >> - Obviously, a lot of existing members moved to the new location. But >> I knew about that in advance and that alone would NOT have changed the >> original space for the worse. >> - Right after committing to the expansion, I found out that about >> six full-time members were leaving as a group. One of them got his own >> private office with room for all of them, and they moved there to work >> together. Six members wouldn't have been the difference, but with the >> space >> already having lost a lot of members, the loss of this group who all >> worked >> in the same area of the space was noticeable. >> - I made the commitment to expand at the end of May. I didn't have >> enough experience at the time to know it, but summer is a killer for >> coworking in Prague, and my membership shrunk by maybe 30% over those >> next >> three months just as a result of the usual seasonal fluxuation. >> - Because the expansion itself was stressful and time consuming, >> the quality of the "community management" at both spaces dropped >> significantly. I was there half as often as before, and when I was >> there I >> had a lot less positive energy to give to the space. People noticed >> and >> several people were openly upset by the change in quality of the >> space/community management. >> - I raised my prices for new members at the time of the expansion, >> and in retrospect I think that had a big impact on membership growth. >> I >> solved the problem later, but it was already too late. >> - All of these challenges came at pretty much the same time, so >> that by the end of the summer the space was--in my opinion--below that >> key >> threshold, even while the other space was growing/gaining members. >> - You may not buy it, but I conceptualize this as mainly a >> consequence of hitting a low point in a random walk where a lot of bad >> things that could go wrong happened to go wrong at the same time (of >> course, if I were wiser, I could have avoided these things and so >> they're >> only a result of luck from my limited perspective). Bad luck in this >> sense >> of random variation happens, just as good luck happens. So the >> question >> here is: when bad luck does happen in such a way that you lose a >> critical >> mass of your community, can you do anything to restore the value of >> the >> space to get the community back rather than have it continue to shrink >> over >> time? >> >> If you read this far, thank you! If you have any great insights, thank >> you thank you thank you! >> >> Will >> > -- 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/d/optout.
