Slightly divergent question, but since part of the problem seems to be the spaces you're finding....what sources are you using to find potential locations?
I'm currently going through the space search process again and I quickly had to remind the folks that are helping me that we're not going to find the kind of space we're looking for on MLS listings and other commercial lease/sale directories. They're all full of cookie cutter vanilla space. Craigslist is a massively underrated source for finding awesome oddball spots that need minimal overhaul, but there's also ZERO replacement for knocking on doors. I look back on the last spot we found and realizing that our current space wasn't on the market, anywhere. We found it because one of our members was having a meeting in the building, thought "this is interesting and I know that Indy Hall is looking for a new home" and then asking for landlord contact info from the other tenant. -Alex ------------------ *The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.* Join the list: http://coworkingweekly.com Listen to the podcast: http://dangerouslyawesome.com/podcast On Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 3:11 PM, <j...@ironfire.co> wrote: > I'd agree with Jensen and keep your space as flexible and general-purpose > as possible. You never know what your members will want, because > truthfully, *they *don't know what they want until they need it. > > As for whether or not to build out, that was a question I faced early on - > mainly because of the limited, suitable real estate options in my area and > because there's no such thing as a turnkey coworking space. I found a few > vacant office spaces with open areas that *could *have worked, but I knew > I'd be compromising my vision from day one by retrofitting a space that > wasn't purpose-built for coworking. Ultimately, I focused on vacant spaces > (or spaces I could demo) so that I could design it from the ground up. THE > CATCH: it's f*cking expensive! Work with an architect to estimate your > costs, and factor it into your business plan to make sure it makes sense > for you. If you can get tenant improvement allowance from your landlord > (and you should from any decent landlord that isn't underwater on their > property), then all the better! > > JOSH > > -- > 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. > -- 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.
