Re: [Coworking] Hello from Bandung, Indonesia

[Tony Bacigalupo]

Ichsan,

Wow, what a story!

So much to respond to:
- Your English is excellent, no worries there.
- You did the right thing by reevaluating and reworking you model
quickly; it's very common that the initial model doesn't work well so
the faster you can identify what *does* work the better.
- Continue to look to your members and potential members for constant
feedback-- if people who were initially excited didn't show up, find
out what it would take to change their minds-- perhaps it is something
minor.

Best of luck!

Cheers,
Tony




On Aug 14, 2009, at 5:45 AM, ichsan <ichsa...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> (Sorry if you receive it twice).
>
> Hello everybody,
>
> My name is Ichsan. I'm a freelance architect in Bandung, Indonesia.
> I've been lurking in this mail list for more than 3 months before
> finally decided to set up our own coworking space early July. Yes,
> that's almost 1 1/5 months ago; I just want to see how it's going
> before sharing the news (after all, I don't want to spoil all your
> excitement and optimism if our space end up prematurely). You can see
> the latest photos of our space here http://www.flickr.com/photos/32321740@N04/sets/72157622026078160/
> or visit www.workpod.wordpress.com (sorry, it's in our native
> language, Bahasa Indonesia).
>
> Being the first coworking space in the city (dare to say in the
> country, too) things wasn't easy at first. We have optimistically
> projected to get 20 members in the first month, because almost every
> people from our initially targeted market (one-man-freelancer) says
> that this is a great idea, and they'll check the space immediately
> after the official opening. Well, they didn't. And so, our first
> month was very-very slow: aside from our 6 founder members (mostly
> architect. Perhaps things are a little different here), only 3 new
> low-
> level members were registered in the first week.
>
> It took another week to realize that only our innermost circle of
> friends can tolerate the ad-hoc ('add-as-it-grow') approach. It's an
> entirely different concept of 'working in the cafe' here in this
> side of the world : most of freelancers in our city consider it as a
> lifestyle (even McDonald's is considered as a delicacy here). Being
> in a coffee shop is an opportunity to 'seen-and to-be-seen', as well
> as to parade their latest gadgets in the table.
>
> So we've decided to change the appearance, and redefined our targeted
> market. We've refined our space by adding two custom-built large
> worktables, installing a 42" LCD TV and a large artwork on the main
> wall. But the most important thing was redefining the market. Instead
> of aiming at one-man-freelancers that will eventually registered as
> low-level members, we've shifted the target to the so-called 'group
> freelancers' and small-scale-enterprises that regularly need a quite
> representative meeting place but couldn't afford an office. We've even
> planned to include small offices (with 'reduce overhead' jargon) as
> our target in the future.
>
> Another important thing was the change in marketing approach. Instead
> of waiting things to happen, we've finally decided to go out and
> introduce the concept of coworking. Each of our founder members was
> required to bring at least 1 potential visitor everyday in average.
> They were also encouraged to actively engaged in various special-
> interest groups now easily accessed thanks to Facebook (This thing is
> a reeeaaaaally big help. I couldn't say enough). Lomo photography
> groups. Analog/film photography groups (yes, it alive and kicking).
> Downhill bikers group. Linux group. Sunday painters group. Anything
> that needs regular showoff moments can use our space. We even organize
> regular workshops on almost anything that can leverage a freelancer's
> skill and broaden their network.
>
> Things are started to picking up since. Within last 2 weeks we have 6
> low-level members, 3 middle level members, and several potential
> high-
> level members to come. We really hope that this will continue for next
> month (we need at least 6 high-level members to sustain), and we're
> very thankful for all your suggestions and ideas. We'll keep you
> posted.
>
> By the way, most of our members are quite interested in the coworking
> visa concept. Any progress on this one?
>
> (Pardon my English. The concept of embedding past, present and future
> in any language is alien to me. After all, our concept of time is
> cyclic, not linear as yours ;-) ).
>
> Best Regards,
> Ichsan
>
> >