[Coworking] Re: Purchasing real estate for coworking space

[Elizabeth Trice]

Run the numbers, but sounds like a great idea if the numbers work. Another 
thought I've had is to switch to non-profit, as we currently pay more in 
property taxes than in staffing!

On Tuesday, May 19, 2015 at 8:57:16 AM UTC-4, Stephanie Miles wrote:
>
> Thank you for the insights! Glen, I hope your wife pops in with her 
> thoughts, as well. We're still in the earliest stages, and I still need to 
> run all the numbers (taxes, etc.), but the building we're looking at seems 
> like such a great opportunity. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing 
> a big piece of the puzzle here.
>
>
> On Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 4:16:22 PM UTC-7, Stephanie Miles wrote:
>>
>> Hello all. I'm new to the group, at the very beginning stages of opening 
>> a coworking space in Redding, CA. (pop. 90,000)
>>
>> I'm considering buying a commercial space for my coworking business, 
>> rather than leasing. Obviously it's a big financial investment up front, 
>> however based on looking at the market here, it seems like the monthly 
>> payments on a commercial real estate loan would be less than the cost of a 
>> lease on a similarly sized space. (I'm looking at pretty run down 
>> industrial spaces, with the plan to renovate.)
>>
>> Wondering if anyone else has done that and what unexpected issues, 
>> challenges, or even benefits you faced by doing so? 
>>
>

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Re: [Coworking] Owner Commitment and Hours Put In.

[Elizabeth Trice]

I think it depends on how you expect the space to function. There are a few 
locked-door spaces will all full-time members there with no reception in my 
town, and I suspect the owner's time is relatively low there. We have a 
bunch of part-time members, outside groups renting space, and so have 
decided to keep doors unlocked 9-5 with an "ambassador" at the front desk. 
Ambassadors are people who work one day/week in exchange for membership. 
Then we have a 8 hours a week back-end operations/ bookkeeper and I the 
owner work 5-40 hrs/ week. (we're 4,500 sf and currently have 60 members 
but hope to grow to 120. )

On Monday, May 18, 2015 at 6:27:40 PM UTC-4, Aaron Cruikshank wrote:
>
> Hi Karen,
>
> My advice would be that you'll need more than one person, for sure but 
> will everyone need to work full time? Not likely.
> When I was running the HiVE, I was there about 3-4 days/week and we had a 
> full-time front desk person then used contractors that we paid hourly to 
> manage after-hours events. Their time was build into the space rental.
>
> I think given what you've said, as long as there is someone there pretty 
> consistently M-F, 9-5, you should only need one body there at any given 
> time but splitting this workload between 2-3 people means that no one gets 
> stuck with it as a full-time job.
>
> - Aaron
>
> Aaron Cruikshank
> Principal, CRUIKSHANK
> phone: 778.908.4560
> e-mail: aa...@cruikshank.me 
> web: cruikshank.me 
> twitter: @cruikshank 
> book a meeting: doodle.com/cruikshank 
> linkedin: in/cruikshank 
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, May 15, 2015 at 11:58 AM, Karen Ruane  > wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm Karen, and along with two other partners, I'll be opening a coworking 
>> space for creatives/artists this August in Bend, OR. While the creation of 
>> this business has been nearly a year in the making, and has become a full 
>> time pursuit, we are looking ahead to a few months after opening, once 
>> major wrinkles are ironed out. We are wondering what sort of time 
>> commitment we should expect? Assuming we will use some sort of software 
>> management system, have keycode access to our space, and be hosting the 
>> occasional after-hours event, how much time do you think we will have to 
>> put in for operations? Is it a single 40 hour per week job? Or will the 
>> three of us likely be putting in near full time hours? We are all working 
>> artists as well, so hope to find a nice balance between running this space, 
>> and our personal businesses. Pipe dream?
>>
>> Thanks so much,
>>
>> Karen
>>
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[Coworking] Professional service co-ops?

[Elizabeth Trice]

I own a coworking space in Portland, Maine and we're talking about forming 
a professional services co-op - we want to both share staffing support, and 
have a better system for exchanging professional services, bringing in 
outside work, and leveling out the feast/famine cycle of freelancers and 
consultants. Any models out there?

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Re: [Coworking] Re: Professional service co-ops?

[Elizabeth Trice]

very cool, tell me more about how this would work for my community!


Liz Trice
207-776-0921
Founder & CEO, Peloton Labs <http://pelotonlabsportland.com>
Portland Innovation Hub Manager, Blackstone Accelerates Growth
<http://www.linkedin.com/in/liztrice>

"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power
and magic in it."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / William Hutchison Murray

On Wed, Jul 15, 2015 at 3:41 PM, Nate Heasley, Goodnik <
nate.heas...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hey Elizabeth - I just recently launched what I call a skill-exchange
> platform that I think is the same thing you're talking about with a
> services co-op. It's basically a barter system for professional services,
> and it uses a time-based alternative currency to facilitate bartering (so
> it doesn't have to be 1-to-1).
>
> The platform is called Goodnik.net and it's live now. You can set up a
> community for free and check it out. If you have questions/thoughts/etc
> feel free to email me at n...@goodnik.org.
>
> -Nate
>
> On Tuesday, June 9, 2015 at 12:41:16 PM UTC-4, Elizabeth Trice wrote:
>>
>> I own a coworking space in Portland, Maine and we're talking about
>> forming a professional services co-op - we want to both share staffing
>> support, and have a better system for exchanging professional services,
>> bringing in outside work, and leveling out the feast/famine cycle of
>> freelancers and consultants. Any models out there?
>>
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Re: [Coworking] What were your initial build-out costs?

[Elizabeth Trice]

We had a brand new building complete with paint, so it was just furniture and 
equipment: $30,000
 

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[Coworking] Slack for Coworking

[Elizabeth Trice]

We're just about to set up slack. I'd like to know how many channels/ what 
types people have found optimal.
Our current plan is:
1. General conversation
2. Official announcements
3. A private group for ambassadors (front desk volunteers) and managers with a  
central email that members can send issues to that would show up on the 
managers group. 

We're also wondering if this will replace our private facebook group, which has 
fairly good usage (often 25 views/post)

We have 80 members, but only about half of those ate actively engaged. 

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[Coworking] Re: Sound control

[Elizabeth Trice]

Our main room is 2,000 sf with concrete floors, lots of windows, and 14' 
ceilings. We have some acoustic "clouds" hanging from the ceiling, but it 
there were lots of echos when we started. Carpets, furniture, and bodies 
help. 
The big problem we had was that it was too quiet and the first phone call 
or conversation of the day would fill the whole space. Once there were 2-3 
conversations going it would be fine, but we couldn't ensure that and 
prospective tenants couldn't tell if they'd be comfortable making phone 
calls. We eventually bought a good white noise system: 
https://www.speechprivacysystems.com/. It cost about $2,000 and took 4 
hours to install. It was hard to justify the expense, but it was totally 
worth it. People need to feel comfortable to make phone calls and talk to 
each other or it just becomes a library environment. We took a secondary 
smaller space (1,500 sf) that was carpeted and made that into a "quiet 
zone". 

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Re: [Coworking] Google calendars for reserving conference rooms

[Elizabeth Trice]

We use liquidspace, which brings in some good income from outside groups.
One issue though; our intention is to give our members a certain number of 
reserved conference room hours for free, and then charge for overages, and 
liquidspace doesn't let us do that. We either have to give people the 
"free" visa, or "paid" status. 
Has anyone else found a better way to do this?

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[Coworking] Re: Music in your coworking space?

[Elizabeth Trice]

We have music at the front desk ambassador's discretion, with the 
understanding that it should never impeded phone calls. We also have 
excellent white noise in both our "noisy" area and our "quiet zone". I 
highly recommending having at least two sound zones. I visited one place in 
Boston that had 5, including a "deadline room" and a room full of people on 
the phone. 

On Wednesday, October 21, 2015 at 1:26:27 PM UTC-4, Kaylyn Gelata wrote:
>
> Hi all ! 
>
> I am getting mixed member opinions about music in the coworking space. 
> Some members LOVE it, and some find it "unprofessional" to have music on in 
> the background and use headphone to block it out. 
> Personally, I find it way too quiet without some music on in the 
> background, making it feel like a library... which we are not.
>
> Do you have music in your coworking space? 
>
> Has anyone else had this difference in opinions? If so, what did you do to 
> try to resolve it? 
>
> I know you can't please everyone.. I want to do what's best for the 
> majority! Thoughts?
>

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[Coworking] Re: Slack for Coworking

[Elizabeth Trice]

Hi,
We just invited everyone to Slack a little over a month ago. We have 60 of 
80 members on Slack, but we don't have a sense of how many people are 
actually using it, and I'm not sure if it's the right platform, or if so 
how to get it used.
Ideally, an internal communication system would:
1. Provide links to email, phone, photo and bios for each member
2. Have threads, so someone can follow specific topics without needing a 
new channel
3. Be seen by everyone (we're still resorting to emails for important 
announcements)
4. Make it easy for me to post new topics of interest or in-person 
discussions and know everyone has seen it without bombarding them with 
emails. 
Thoughts?
 

>
>

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[Coworking] Re: Software for room booking with additional resources?

[Elizabeth Trice]

satellitedeskworks.com also has a way to book specific 
amenities/technologies. 

On Tuesday, November 17, 2015 at 8:28:45 AM UTC-5, Geoffrey Badner wrote:
>
> I know conference room booking is a hot topic on here. I've searched 
> through the archives and looked at many of the suggestions. Unfortunately, 
> I cannot seem to find a tool that fit my specific needs.
>
> I'm opening a collective photo studio where members can book space to 
> shoot in for the day. A lot of the meeting room management tools cover this 
> functionality, but I also allow members to book equipment to use within the 
> space during their shoots (lights, stands, props, etc.). This is the part I 
> can't seem to figure out. I have an equipment inventory from which people 
> can select the items they want, but I need to ensure inventory items are 
> not overbook.
>
> It seems the logical office space parallel here would be things like 
> projectors or rolling whiteboards, but I cannot find a tool that does this 
> well.
>
> Any suggestions?
> ~ Geoffrey
>

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[Coworking] Peer Accountability and Professional Development Work Centers vision

[Elizabeth Trice]

I own a coworking space in Portland, Maine, and we're working on a model 
that would create a high level of peer accountability for freelancers and 
new entrepreneurs, so that just by walking into the space they are guided 
into improving their business, peer coaching, and contributing to other 
members businesses. Is anyone else working on anything similar?

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Re: [Coworking] CRM

[Elizabeth Trice]

Jerome,
What do you use for a sales/booking/membership system?
Right now we use Zoho CRM (for CRM + member data), then Quickbooks Online 
to charge people, and for communications Mailchimp, and Slack.  We'd like 
to lower the Quickbooks online cost of credit card processing fees, and we 
wonder about consolidating systems. 
>
>
>

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[Coworking] SEO key words /search terms

[Elizabeth Trice]

It turns out our SEO hasn't been set up properly and we are going to be 
starting from scratch.
What are the top key words or search terms that bring people to your 
website?

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[Coworking] Team building for members?

[Elizabeth Trice]

I'm interested in building higher level engagement of members, and have 
been thinking about more team-building, orientation training, and other 
systems to help individuals work more like a team. What are the best 
practices ou
t there?  

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[Coworking] Member 30 day notice policy

[Elizabeth Trice]

When members sign up they sign an agreement that says they need to give 30 
days notice to the first of the month if they want to discontinue their 
membership. We've done this both to not have surprise drops in revenue, but 
also to because we've noticed that it results in members who haven't been 
coming in much to start coming in again. Recently a few people got angry 
when they requested a change only a week in advance. How do others handle 
this?

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[Coworking] Re: How to Staff the Door During Business Hours

[Elizabeth Trice]

We have 80 members in 4600 sf, and have a successful program with member 
ambassadors staffing the front desk. Our doors are unlocked and staffed 9-5 
M-F except holidays, and almost all members have 24/7 keys. They don't have 
to be at the desk, they just have to be within sight of the front door in 
case someone new comes in. There's a remote handset for the desk phone so 
they can take it with them. Our space has lots of other desks and couches 
right around the front door, so even sitting at the front desk they are 
part of the space; it's not like there's a separate lobby. At this point, 
most of the ambassadors have had the role for 2-3 years, and they're very 
happy as they get to know all the other members and take advantage of all 
the resources the space has. We have a quarterly dinner and meeting, and we 
also just started providing reimbursement for conferences or education they 
want to attend. I'm happy to provide more detail in direct message.  
Pelotonlabsportland.com

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[Coworking] Re: Coworking in Missoula, Montana

[Elizabeth Trice]

Hi Jennifer!
I run space in Portland Maine, and we have a good partnership with 
Steelcase/RedThread here. They asked all the coworking space owners to be on a 
panel to talk to corporations about how to create environments that people will 
PAY to work in, and they also helped us do a redesign of our space. I also have 
some friend in Missoula that I might be visiting this September. I'll contact 
you directly. 

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[Coworking] Re: Can you help me find other Woman-Owned Coworking Spaces? Spotlighting for Int'l Coworking Day 2016!

[Elizabeth Trice]

Hi-
I own Peloton Labs in Portland, Maine. 

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