Re: Decline in customers during the Holidays?

[Jeannine]

Hi, Marie,

We have developed the tag "Rural Coworking" for anybody located outside large cities, and it is a slightly different model than in the larger cities.  My space is one as well.

I have noted a slowdown during the holiday season and then a really large pickup right after new year, everybody is then on a New Year Resolution High and trying to get everything in order.  Some years I have had a lot of events in that time, so all the folks making new year's resolutions notice that I am there.  There's always a nonprofit or club looking for a space for an event and sponsoring an event by lettting htem have it free or cheap does pull press, which is nice.  

You want to choose nonprofits/clubs that resonate with your community of course, otherwise you are preaching to the wrong choir.

This year for the first time, the members have essentially said "Can we just skip it for Christmas and have a New Year event instead?  We are booked solid."  So this year, other than the Christmas tree we haven't got much booked.

Laters,

Jeannine

[julianne]

Hey there Marie,

From the Deskwanted perspective, I can tell you that December is the worst month for us too. We have significantly less people looking for workspaces in December, but...January is the best month for it!

As Jeannine says, that New Year's resolution hing kicks in and people are ready to get started!

Good luck with all, and hand in there!

Happy Holidays!

Julianne

Julianne Becker
Community Management - Deskwanted

On Wednesday, December 19, 2012 12:32:17 AM UTC+1, Marie wrote:

Just wondering if anyone is experiencing a decline in the amount of customers in December? If so, what efforts are you doing that is helping to bring more in?

Granted, my questions is more for co-working spaces that are not located in big cities (if any like that exist). Ours is located in the suburbs and I have noticed a decrease in activity since last week and around Thanksgiving. We have not done anything different and we do have new promos starting in January but we don't have a marketing budget for December so I can't spend a ton of money marketing right now. I mostly just want to know if it's normal in the co-working world as I know its normal to slow down around the holidays in the B2B world.

[Mojo]

Hello Marie,  we have a coworking space in Asheville, North Carolina.  Population 75,000-ish.  We are located downtown which I think helps but also notice a slowdown in December.  The way we try to counter this is by having as many 6 month members as possible.  We run the cycles starting in April and October ... so that we make sure we're covered in the slower months like December and July.  We also start opening our common area for free community events in October & November to allow as many people to come through the space and see it, talk about it ... hopefully spread the word or come back themselves to use it. 

Most of our members are 6 month or 1 year vs. drop in.  We have a few M2M members and a few daily/drop in/flex users as well.  Usually around Thanksgiving and Xmas we get a few tourists who are in town visiting family/friends ... make sure that your local tourism board knows about you ... or your chamber of commerce, etc. if that exists for your suburban location.

Happy holidays.

Craig

[Joel Bennett - Veel Hoeden]

I was recently in discussion with a friend about how you measure the effectiveness of a church.  He mentioned he uses a simple set of question to get at a qualitative measurement of how a church is doing.

 

"If your church closed down tomorrow, would the people of your area miss you?  Would they even notice?  What wouldn't be getting done because you were gone?"

 

When I returned to Veel Hoeden it struck me that these could be the same questions by which we measure our coworking communities.

 

There has been a lot of recent (and important) discussion out here on whether coworking is a fad (IMO it is not), whether coworking facilities are closing at an accelerated pace (IMO no faster than other startup businesses, 75% of which fail), and why they are leaving the marketplace.  All good questions.  But I'm wondering if a better question should be, when they leave, does anyone outside the members notice?

 

[A quick sidenote.  I'm expecting there are a number of you out here who have lead or been part of a space who closed.  I am not trying to be critical of your space, your circumstances, or place blame.  Businesses fail.  It's part of life.  But I think current spaces need to address their present to determine what their future may hold.]

 

We started Veel Hoeden because we felt there was a need being unmet.  Immediately upon opening we felt positive about what we had created because everyone was happy.  Sound familiar?

 

Two years later it would be easy for me to rest on my laurels and cling to the past. But the truth is, your relevance is always based in the  present; the past means nothing.

 

This year we'll be offering local social entrepreneurs a chance to join our space for a 6 month residency to help them get their cause off the ground.  Why?  Because it matters in a time when those who are in need, need more, and those who want to help them could use a little traction.  I know other spaces around the world have offered something similar.

 

I've heard of coworking communities offering discounted/free passes to the unemployed, or offering training to help them find jobs or launch a business.  Why?  Because it matters in a time when unemployment is higher than it has been in years.

 

So that brings us back to a question.  Beyond your members, if your space closed tomorrow would anyone else in your community mourn?  Is what you are doing making an impact beyond offering space to work?

 

I'd love to hear what other coworking communities are doing to matter.  Send me your thoughts.

 

Thanks & God Bless,

 

 

Joel Bennett

Chief Dreamchaser

[Alex Hillman]

Posts like this one make me so proud to be a part of THIS community. 

Thanks, Joel. 

We just had our year-end town hall this past week and ran it decidedly different than before. 

In the past it's been more of a "state of the union", with open floor discussion tacked on. This time we flipped it around to put the emphasis on the discussion. 

It was harder to get the conversation moving, since it was more open ended than in the past. We still ended up covering a lot of ground and had a ton of great contributions from members. Given that our last year has been so much about growing, our present is showing stress fractures around communication, so that's looking to be one of our major themes for the next year. 

But something else interesting happened. Since town hall, the entire community seems to have been sparked into being the best version of itself we've ever seen. People are seeing the bigger context of their participation in Indy Hall, and have started coming to me with what THEY see as the opportunity to make a difference and how THEY want to lead the effort. 

It's been amazing and inspiring, and reminds me why we build community the way we do. It lets me play the role of enabler, making sure that our community members have what they need to become community leaders, even if its just for a seemingly small, simple initiative. 

Because all of those little things add up in a big way. 

-Alex

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/ah

indyhall.org

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Joel Bennett

Chief Dreamchaser

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[Alex Hillman]

I can concur with Craig - this has been a pretty predictable pattern for us and the best thing we've done is to get a few months ahead of it. 

The good news is that it's generally followed by a spike of new activity in January. Kinda like New Years resolutions for the gym, but for coworking :)

Craig - for your 6 month memberships, are people still paying monthly? How do those work/help you through seasonal lulls?

-Alex

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indyhall.org

coworking in philadelphia

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[John Wilker]

Yeah Uncubed has slowed down this month too. We did have two new members join earlier in the month, but over all most everyone is coming in less and less. 

John Wilker
Founder, 360|Conferences | Partner, Uncubed
(720) 381-2370
twitter: jwilker
johnwilker.com | 360|MacDev | 360|Stack | 360|iDev

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[Mike Pihlman]

For the past three Decembers, I picked up one or two people.  This year, I lost two.  

Mike

On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 8:58 AM, Marie <christin...@thirdworkplace.com> wrote:

WOW! All these responses are great! So glad we have a group like this. Thank you. I am glad we are running new promos then in Jan considering the general trends.

On Tuesday, December 18, 2012 3:32:17 PM UTC-8, Marie wrote:

Just wondering if anyone is experiencing a decline in the amount of customers in December? If so, what efforts are you doing that is helping to bring more in?

Granted, my questions is more for co-working spaces that are not located in big cities (if any like that exist). Ours is located in the suburbs and I have noticed a decrease in activity since last week and around Thanksgiving. We have not done anything different and we do have new promos starting in January but we don't have a marketing budget for December so I can't spend a ton of money marketing right now. I mostly just want to know if it's normal in the co-working world as I know its normal to slow down around the holidays in the B2B world.

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[Mojo]

Alex - 6 month members pay monthly (first of the month) just like everyone else.  We did have one member who for accounting reasons paid all up front (which was nice).  Some others pay 3 months at a time, but most just pay monthly.  We encourage the 6 month memberships by offering a slightly lower price and allowing 24/7 access.

My thinking was that if we keep our six month members on an October and April renewal cycle ... they'll be committed through the slower months and desks/offices will be filled.  We try to steer all new members toward membership renewals at those two months.

I'd still like to find some time to get on a quick call with you.  Maybe early next year.   Cheers.

[Alex Hillman]

Totally makes sense. 

Another thing along that line to help ease weak points in cash-flow through slow periods is to offer multi-month presales of membership (like you already do, we do it in 3-6-12 month increments). For every 6 months that people pre-pay, we give them an additional month for free. We don't generally publicize this option except in periods where we know that cash-flow is predictably slower. 

There's another benefit to the end of the year - members whose companies have cash on hand are often trying to get some extra business expenses on the books to lower their taxable income. Since coworking is generally a business expense (always check with an accountant on how it works for you), people pre-paying for a few months of next year at the end of the calendar year helps ease holiday drop off.

And this is just on the business side of things! 

We've been able to keep Indy Hall feeling cozy by turning up the dial on community interactions, which are already our focus during the rest of the year. 

Even when people are winding down on the work front, keeping the community active and participating reminds people that it's not just a place to get work done. Our year end town hall & holiday party spurred some of the most exciting ideas for the new year from our members, making things feel a lot less quiet than they might actually be compared to the usual activity.

Craig - lets definitely connect in the new year. Hit me up off list with some days/times :)

Happy holidays, everybody!

-Alex

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