Dana, I think these are good questions to ask. I think the reality is that many (not all!) successful coworking spaces rely on private offices as "anchor tenants" to pay the bills. Private office spaces are more expensive to build up front (think in the neighborhood of $10k each furnished) but most coworking spaces run with a much higher vacancy rate on their coworking memberships than their offices. We have 2 locations - Enerspace Chicago and Palo Alto and our revenue in each space is about 60% office space. The office revenue pays the rent and allows us to focus on community building which is why we're in the business. I've heard this explanation from many other successful coworking spaces. You might be anti-office from a philosophical standpoint, but if you want to have an impact and be financially sustainable, you might want to consider them.
Also, I would like to note that our office members have always been some of our more active community members. The first ones to happy hour, the first ones to meet new members, the first ones to sign up for demo day, etc. They just need private space due to the nature of their work. We are also learning a lot more about how people best function at work and this idea of (I think this is Alex Hillman's term), "choice architecture." People do certain types of work better in certain types of environments, and shared spaces would be well-served to design for those activities. Some of those activities are private or require quiet, concentrated focus that gets done behind walls. I think a hybrid model can accomplish financial sustainability and a strong community. On Tuesday, January 19, 2016 at 4:06:09 PM UTC-8, Dana Cofer wrote: > > Matt, > > Thank you so much for sharing this information. I have been working on my > business and financial model to open a coworking space in Portland, Oregon > so this is very timely. It also reinforces what I am seeing in my initial > pass, which is "how can something so right be so unprofitable?" Portland > office space costs don't help where we have to pay $20-25/sf/yr for > anything desirable. So for 6,500 sf I am looking at $10,000 just for rent. > Memberships alone won't pay the bills. > > My research has reinforced the market need for meeting space that is > aesthetic, creative, and flexible. Basically, an alternative to the hotels > that put you in a basement and force you to eat (and pay for) their food. > > I wonder if I should design my model to weigh more heavily on private > offices, meeting space rental, and business support services over communal > desk space. Obviously that is the nerve center for a community, but maybe > shifts to 50% of the space/revenue. > > I guess I am interested in the communities advice for someone wanting to > start a cowork business as their sole business and not have a side job to > put food on the table. > > Thanks for any advice and for being so transparent with your experience! > > Dana > > > On Friday, January 8, 2016 at 4:21:04 AM UTC-8, Matt D. wrote: >> >> Hey everyone. >> >> We just hit the 18-month mark, and we decided to take an honest look at >> how we're doing. Turns out we've had some nice growth, but were still >> losing money. >> >> We've laid it all out - data, financials and some honest analysis of >> what's still gotdoing we're in our coworking business/operations in order >> for us to find profitability - which we will! If you're interested, please >> take a read: >> >> >> http://www.theskillery.com/blog/2015/12/29/we-doubled-our-revenue-in-2015-but-were-still-losing-money-heres-why >> >> Hope you find it useful. Let me know if I can answer any questions! >> Thanks! >> >> -Matt @mattdudleytn, from The Skillery @theskillery >> >> -- 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.
