Re: [Coworking] Coaching subscription

[Jamie Tyrell]

Hi:

I think that offering coaching services are more or less already a given.
In that, people are for the most part wanting to help others succeed in
their business.  While I am unsure as to what coaching services you would
offer, I ask out loud are you creating a new ecosystem within your space or
more defining it as a mentorship/colab space?  If so, then it is a matter
of determining how much to charge your members based on that and think of
it as they are paying for a mentorship service with a monthly membership
attached to it.   So you, in turn, are not renting space, but paying for a
service that just happens to come with free wifi, a desk and some great
conversations.

Jamie Tyrell

On Mon, 21 Jan 2019 at 11:40,  wrote:

> Hello Everyone!
> I am working on my coworking concept, and want to offer coaching
> services.  This will add overhead to the basic membership.  I think it
> could add value to the community, but not sure if my niche client,
> "entrepreneur", will be able to afford this type of service.  I want to
> build a coworking space that is focused on growing the individuals in the
> community, not just another corporate office space for rent.  My question
> is, has anyone offered coaching services before, and who would be the
> targeted client?   Freelancer? Startups?  Entrepreneurs?  Although I love
> this idea, I fear I will have no market for it.  Thoughts? Thanks. Trey
>
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Re: [Coworking] Coaching subscription

[Will Bennis, Locus Workspace]

Hi Trey,

I really LOVED this idea and still do love it. But after having tried it 
and thought about it, I have really mixed feelings about it and decided to 
stop providing/promoting coaching services in our own coworking space:

*The good side: *

   - Obviously, it looks great on a website as some kind of added value for 
   the coworking space and it may help bring in new members
   - More importantly, I think many / most freelancers could really use a 
   good coach, given the many challenges of working on one's own where an 
   outside perspective can really make a difference. 

*The bad side:*

   - Conflicts of interest: We have have had a LOT of members who are 
   coaches. You may well alienate potential or existing member coaches who 
   aren't so happy to be competing with their coworking space for clients.
   - Recreating the corporate/evaluative work environment many of your 
   members left traditional 9-5 jobs to escape: If your coach(es) are members, 
   you you have to pick and choose among them to evaluate the quality of their 
   work and endorse one over the other. It can be great if you do it well, but 
   you may well alienate wonderful members who turn out not to be wonderful 
   employees. I think there's a reason so many coworking spaces have had the 
   idea of becoming a boutique project management company using their members 
   as their team, but none that I know of have actually succeeded.
   - It's hard enough to run a good coworking space if that's your only 
   focus: keep in mind that running a good coaching business won't be a piece 
   of cake. If you don't have great coaches doing great work, it will affect 
   your reputation as a coworking space and either way you'll be giving 
   yourself a lot of extra work.
   - Even if you're intentions are great, the moment you start adding 
   "upsale" services, many people will be suspicious of them and even less 
   likely to use them than if they were offered by someone outside the 
   coworking space (even if they really like you and the space): there's a 
   risk of moving your environment from more "community/trust" oriented to 
   more "business transaction" oriented. This isn't necessarily a bad thing 
   given how hard it is to run a profitable coworking space, but it's 
   something to keep in mind.
   - Most importantly: Despite my conviction that location-independent 
   knowledge workers are great candidates for coaching, we offered free 
   one-hour coaching sessions with no long term commitment and from coaches I 
   really liked, *we had ZERO interest *after offering and promoting the 
   service for two years (and with NO upsale or personal benefit that might 
   have made folks suspicious of motives). Obviously spaces and members and 
   markets are different, and maybe what didn't work for us will work for you, 
   but my sense here in Prague is that coaching generally isn't something most 
   freelancers want when it comes to the reality of committing time and money. 
   As Tony suggested, I would make sure you have some real demand for this 
   before even considering making the personal investment in it. Unless you're 
   just doing it for the window dressing.

My 2 cents.

Will


On Monday, January 21, 2019 at 8:04:51 PM UTC+1, Tony Bacigalupo wrote:
>
> Hey Trey, 
>
> Welcome! I think offering coaching services alongside membership is a 
> great idea that more spaces should be looking into.
>
> Have you considered making it an option that a member can upgrade to, like 
> a personal trainer at a gym? 
>
> As for determining whether there's a market—do you know people personally 
> who are potential customers? Can you ask them what they think?
>
> Tony Bacigalupo
> *---*
> New Work Cities  • Coworking.org
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at 11:40 AM > 
> wrote:
>
>> Hello Everyone! 
>> I am working on my coworking concept, and want to offer coaching 
>> services.  This will add overhead to the basic membership.  I think it 
>> could add value to the community, but not sure if my niche client, 
>> "entrepreneur", will be able to afford this type of service.  I want to 
>> build a coworking space that is focused on growing the individuals in the 
>> community, not just another corporate office space for rent.  My question 
>> is, has anyone offered coaching services before, and who would be the 
>> targeted client?   Freelancer? Startups?  Entrepreneurs?  Although I love 
>> this idea, I fear I will have no market for it.  Thoughts? Thanks. Trey 
>>
>> -- 
>> 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+...@googlegroups.com .
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>>
>

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Re: [Coworking] Coaching subscription

[Tony Bacigalupo]

Hey Trey,

Welcome! I think offering coaching services alongside membership is a great
idea that more spaces should be looking into.

Have you considered making it an option that a member can upgrade to, like
a personal trainer at a gym?

As for determining whether there's a market—do you know people personally
who are potential customers? Can you ask them what they think?

Tony Bacigalupo
*---*
New Work Cities  • Coworking.org



On Mon, Jan 21, 2019 at 11:40 AM  wrote:

> Hello Everyone!
> I am working on my coworking concept, and want to offer coaching
> services.  This will add overhead to the basic membership.  I think it
> could add value to the community, but not sure if my niche client,
> "entrepreneur", will be able to afford this type of service.  I want to
> build a coworking space that is focused on growing the individuals in the
> community, not just another corporate office space for rent.  My question
> is, has anyone offered coaching services before, and who would be the
> targeted client?   Freelancer? Startups?  Entrepreneurs?  Although I love
> this idea, I fear I will have no market for it.  Thoughts? Thanks. Trey
>
> --
> 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.
>

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[Coworking] Coaching subscription

[superiorself23]

Hello Everyone! 
I am working on my coworking concept, and want to offer coaching services.  
This will add overhead to the basic membership.  I think it could add value 
to the community, but not sure if my niche client, "entrepreneur", will be 
able to afford this type of service.  I want to build a coworking space 
that is focused on growing the individuals in the community, not just 
another corporate office space for rent.  My question is, has anyone 
offered coaching services before, and who would be the targeted client?  
 Freelancer? Startups?  Entrepreneurs?  Although I love this idea, I fear I 
will have no market for it.  Thoughts? Thanks. Trey 

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