Coworking spaces are becoming more and more popular, but that doesn’t mean they’re always easy to run. To make your coworking space a success, you need to cultivate the right environment for your members. Here are five steps that will help you unlock the benefits of coworking spaces.
Work with a partner
When starting a coworking space, it’s important to find a partner who shares your vision. However, you should also consider the costs of working with a partner, both financial and otherwise. Most important of all, you need to make sure you can trust this person and that they feel that they can trust you..
You may want to consider finding a coworking space that is run by more than one person. If it’s just you and your business partner, then you could share the cost of renting out office space together, which would make things both cheaper for each other and easier for your business to grow together.
Get to know your neighbors
Start by making friends with the people around you. The best way to do this is to ask them questions and show genuine interest in their answers. Try asking about their jobs, hobbies, and even their families—you never know what interesting tidbits you might learn.
By getting to know your neighbors, there’ll be no shortage of people who are ready to lend a hand when you need it. If any problems arise with the building’s facilities or management, having friends in high places makes it easier for them (and by extension, you) to get things resolved quickly and efficiently.
Start small
Starting small is important. You don’t want to spend big bucks before you know if your concept will work. But it’s also important not to underbuild and find yourself in need of something later on. Here are some pointers:
- Don’t overbuild too soon. Start with a small space and see how much of that space gets filled up with members, then expand as needed.
- Don’t overspend on furniture or equipment that you’ll never use because your membership didn’t grow as fast as you thought it would.
- Don’t buy anything new until you’ve been open for three months or more (and preferably six months) so that you have time to see what kind of traffic flow works best for your location—and what kind of furniture and equipment works best with that traffic flow.
Think local
When you think local, you’re thinking about the community of people around you and how they can help grow your business. You’re also thinking about what’s best for the environment. But most importantly, you’re thinking about how to make a lasting impact on your community. If you are looking to start a coworking space or already operate one, it is important to consider how working with local businesses will benefit both parties.
Keep it simple
The key to keeping your coworking space simple is to not overbuild. Don’t get too fancy—just focus on the essentials and keep it simple. This applies to both the physical space, as well as the virtual tools you use in that space. For example, don’t overcomplicate things with too many meeting rooms or conference rooms: one or two should suffice unless you’re running a high number of workshops or training sessions at once. Similarly, if you’ve got a couple of dozen people working out of your space every day, don’t build out a private kitchen for them all; instead, just provide coffee and snacks.
