Hey Tiago, I often recommend folks coming from the corporate world to try their hand at some kind of consulting or freelancing before getting into the overhead and challenges that come with running a Coworking space.
*Three reasons:* 1) it'll help you understand your (potential) members better. If you've never been in a similar situation as the person you hope to create something for, it's very easy to make assumptions and be DEAD WRONG about what they actually need, want, and value. 2) consulting is a nearly overhead-free business, compared to coworking. You can start it the second you find your first client. No long term commitments like leases. A lot of people learn their taste for running their own business as a consultant. If you find that you love it, awesome, and you have a huge advantage over someone who doesn't have the same experience (back to my first reason). And if you find out that it doesn't live up to the dream, you're not on the hook for a lease and furniture and all of the other things that come with opening a coworking space. 3) consulting gives your skills and revenue to fall back on while your coworking space is growing and stabilizing. Especially during the first 2 years. Our model of building the community first and involving them in the process allowed us to be profitable 4 months after opening our doors, but that included 12 months of work before we opened our doors during which my consulting allows me to be more in control of my time and income to work on the community and the business. I've run a profitable Coworking space for nearly a decade and I've seen a lot of patterns in success and failure. Comparatively, consulting in nearly any B2B industry is a MUCH easier path to sustainable income than a coworking space, especially as a first venture. Set yourself up for a win and maybe even try consulting on the side (so long as it doesn't conflict with your employment contract). You'll learn a LOT that will benefit you in running a coworking space. :) -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, May 4, 2016 at 11:57 AM, Tiago Vasconcelos <talvasconce...@gmail.com > wrote: > Thank you all for your replies, i really appreciate them. > > @Tony > My goal is to ditch this crappy work, or eventually do it remotely. > Although i have 2 months behind of getting payed, i still need it to pay > the bills. I have 15 years of my life here and i don't want to get out with > my finger up my butt. I already tried and agreement with thm to let me go > but it didn't work out too well. > > My goal is that exactlly. Make something of value, change something, help > people, bring them closer... i'd like it to be my legacy (ok, a bit too > romantic...) !! Also i think is a business oportunity, i can't eat > fullfilment and they don't accept that as bank payments either. So i guess > my drive is a little bit of both. > > You make some very good sugestions. Maybe the in-person ones are a bit > difficult for me, i'm a shy guy at first, but maybe i'll try and start > contacting the 50000 hostels around and try to understand if they have many > costumers that actually do some work, etc... Start a FB group/community on > the subject... Only one doubt, do i make this approach as a "business" > owner/entrepeneur obviously community member and caring fellow coworker or > do it has just another coworker trying to reach out and then come up with a > "solution"... a cowork space? The latter doesn't make me feel very good > about myself, as i feel i'm tricking people and using them... (not sure if > i made myself clear on the point!!) > > @Trevor > thanks for sharing your experience. I read somewhere that the idea is > about 5% of a "product", so not to woory about the idea getting stollen. > But there's always a risk and i'm glad you understand my fear. > Read your post, nice going man. I'm not sure i want to go the coop way, > but it's nice to see you came out on top with that all story. > > Best regards, > Tiago > > > On Tuesday, May 3, 2016 at 1:25:20 PM UTC+1, Tiago Vasconcelos wrote: >> >> Hello everyone, just discovered this group. Already consumed so many >> information here, thank you all for this. >> >> I'm looking to open a cowork space but i have many doubts and no money!! >> The place is a highly touristic place by the ocean and a known surf spot. >> I'll be counting with some nomad surfers, or digital nomads that surf or >> just people who want to be in a nice place by the beach and do some work. >> >> At the moment i'm looking for real estate but don't know what to look for >> exactly. I found a couple of stores from 60 to 100m² . Last week i found >> what it used to be a hostel and it blew my mind and got me starting >> thinking big. So what should i be looking for in a place? >> >> Secondly, after some research i found that most places are open 24/7 and >> people have keys to the place, is this mandatory?! I found also that >> there's management software for costumers. How does this work? Do people >> have to do a login of some sort or have a check clock to punch in? >> >> What comodities are a must for a coworking space? >> >> I guess for now these are my biggest doubts... i have many more that i'll >> be asking, if you don't mind, later! >> >> Thanks in advance, >> Tiago >> > -- > 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.
