Hey Alex, I just purchased your audiobook and plan to listen to it today. I'm excited about it!
Here's the deal with my situation. I had been posting on FB for a while about coworking, when a person I've known for a few years messaged me and asked if we could meet. She and her husband (I've known them both for several years.) had bought a house on Main St that used to be a law office building. They'd been kind of sitting on it more or less for a few months not really having much of an idea what to do with it. Then, they saw my posts, and thought it was an interesting idea. So we met at the house and started walking through. I told them my thoughts, and I even started to give specifics on potential layout. This all transitioned to a meeting where they suggested allowing me to have the run of the first floor for coworking. They would pay for all the upfitting and furnishing and even get the exact furniture I specified on. They would pay for the networking of the building, security, insurance, maintenance and landscaping, and even the monthly internet bill. This all sounded great to me because I have little to no capital right now, and it allowed me the opportunity to get started right away without having to fundraise, etc. They seem really excited about the idea, about working with me, and how it could be positive for our community. They've even said they will be limiting the upstairs tenants to one-year leases so that if the coworking space takes off, we can have the upstairs too for expansion. I've tried a couple times to bring up what our lease agreement would be, as well as what our business relationship would be, specifically. So far, all they have said is that they want to give the space the best chance to succeed, so instead of giving a hard number or specific lease, they would just take a percentage of what comes in at first as we get on our feet. There's been no discussion beyond that. I wasn't really anxious about it until a week or so ago when multiple mentors in my life advised me to get things nailed down. Here's what I'm proposing. (I would LOVE your feedback!): - I will go ahead and incorporate under an LLC for the coworking business so I'm protected. - I will pay for the internet for the downstairs to keep things neater. - I'll also have my own insurance/liability policy for the downstairs and my business. - I will suggest that if they are indeed paying for 100% of the upfit, they will get 100% of what comes in, minus my monthly bills/expenses (internet, insurance, coffee/amenities, Nexudus subscription, maintenance), until they recoup all of their expenses for upfit. (I run my own web/graphic design company, and I do not intend for the coworking space to be a source of revenue for me at first. I hear that a lot of spaces are not profitable for the first year anyway, so it seems this would work out.) - If the space fails (don't want to think that way but things happen) my company and I would not be on the hook for the rest of the expenses, but we also would not get to keep anything. They bought it. They keep it. - Once they've recouped everything, we'd convert to a standard lease agreement and negotiate at that point as to what the terms would be. I understand that puts me a little more at their mercy when it comes to the negotiating later down the road because if the space really takes off, they could ask an arm and a leg for rent. However, it allows me to start without capital, and to really get the model on its feet with no overhead or debt, and then if they do end up being unreasonable about the rent amount, I still own the business and can take it elsewhere as an attractive commodity. I'm pretty much begging for input. :) 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+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
