Want to start a coworking space? How to know when your community is ready.

[Beth Buczynski]

How can you know that there’s enough demand for a coworking space in
your town without personally polling each and every remote worker or
freelancer in a 20 mile radius?

In this article three space owners share their ideas for gauging
interest, and knowing when both you and your community are ready for a
shared work space.

Hope it can be helpful to the many future space owners on this list..

http://www.shareable.net/blog/is-your-community-ready-for-coworking

Thanks to Gerard Sychay of CincyCoworks, Joel Bennett of Veel Hoeden,
Angel Kwiatkowski of Cohere Coworking Community, and Alice Kaerast for
their input!

[Alex Hillman]

This article is an excellent new resource to point people to when this very common question is asked. Thanks Beth and contributors!

-Alex

/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia

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[Joel Bennett]

Beth- Thanks for letting us be a part of this!

Thanks & God Bless,

Joel Bennett
Chief Dreamchaser
Veel Hoeden
veelh...@gmail.com
http://veelhoeden.posterous.com
http://www.twitter.com/veelhoeden

http://www.shareable.net/blog/is-your-community-ready-for-coworking

--

[Beth Buczynski]

Thanks Alex!

On Dec 13, 9:52 am, Alex Hillman <dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com> wrote:
> This article is an excellent new resource to point people to when this very
> common question is asked. Thanks Beth and contributors!
>
> -Alex
>
> /ah
> indyhall.org
> coworking in philadelphia
>

> On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 11:48 AM, Beth Buczynski <bethbo...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> > How can you know that there’s enough demand for a coworking space in
> > your town without personally polling each and every remote worker or
> > freelancer in a 20 mile radius?
>
> > In this article three space owners share their ideas for gauging
> > interest, and knowing when both you and your community are ready for a
> > shared work space.
>
> > Hope it can be helpful to the many future space owners on this list..
>
> >http://www.shareable.net/blog/is-your-community-ready-for-coworking
>
> > Thanks to Gerard Sychay of CincyCoworks, Joel Bennett of Veel Hoeden,
> > Angel Kwiatkowski of Cohere Coworking Community, and Alice Kaerast for
> > their input!
>
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "Coworking" group.
> > To post to this group, send email to cowo...@googlegroups.com.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

> > coworking+...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>
> > .

[Dave Ruzius]

Love (!) the article and exactly the question we at TheWorks.cz are currently faced with. Jellies are great but not really sustainable. Will investigate who is willing to pitch-in to create our own 'club-house' as that's how it should feel.. created and supported by the peeps themselves...

TheWorks.cz

Dave Ruzius

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http://www.theworks.cz

[Andrew Badera]

Interesting article, thanks for sharing.

However, I'm not sure the temporary space thing applies per se ... I think maybe it needs to be more granular? You might be able to do, say, highly creative, initial startup prototyping and maybe even beta testing out of a coffee shop, but it's rare that you'll find someone who works in more conventional and/or heavier duty software spending a lot of time in coffee shops -- even with headphones, it's just not the right environment to focus on highly complex tasks, individually or as a team. You're also limited in the amount of shared space you can use for a team -- it's not easy to whiteboard in a coffee shop, and no, the virtual options are just not the same.

We've had some interest in the Albany, NY area, but we have pull in 3 or 4 different directions, with 3 or 4 people committing to any given area, but having a hard time getting critical mass who can agree on a given area that works for them. Coffee shops may serve some of our potential coworkers, but a lot of us need something more, even if Starbuck and Panera still have plenty of open seating.

--ab

[Catharine]

Hi Beth,

Your post reminded me that a friend sent me this Mashable article
yesterday and I thought it'd be good to add to this string.

http://mashable.com/2010/12/13/found-coworking-space/

Thanks,
Catharine.
/Foundery - coming soon!

[Beth Buczynski]

Andrew,

I agree. There are some types of work that will never be suited to the
ever-changing (and crowded) environment of the coffee shop. I was
inspired by Alice K's (quoted in the article) mid-way solution to
needing more than a coffee shop, but lacking the substance for a full
fledged space. I wonder if a more substantial but temporary space
would be a solution for your situation, i.e. finding a business with
an extra back room, so that you could give the community time to grow
without being cramped in a space that's not really intended for
intense work.

Anyone else run into the need for an in-between space before they
opened? Where did you look?

Beth

On Dec 14, 4:26 am, Andrew Badera <and...@badera.us> wrote:
> Interesting article, thanks for sharing.
>
> However, I'm not sure the temporary space thing applies per se ... I think
> maybe it needs to be more granular? You might be able to do, say, highly
> creative, initial startup prototyping and maybe even beta testing out of a
> coffee shop, but it's rare that you'll find someone who works in more
> conventional and/or heavier duty software spending a lot of time in coffee
> shops -- even with headphones, it's just not the right environment to focus
> on highly complex tasks, individually or as a team. You're also limited in
> the amount of shared space you can use for a team -- it's not easy to
> whiteboard in a coffee shop, and no, the virtual options are just not the
> same.
>
> We've had some interest in the Albany, NY area, but we have pull in 3 or 4
> different directions, with 3 or 4 people committing to any given area, but
> having a hard time getting critical mass who can agree on a given area that
> works for them. Coffee shops may serve some of our potential coworkers, but
> a lot of us need something more, even if Starbuck and Panera still have
> plenty of open seating.
>
> --ab
>

> On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 5:13 AM, Dave Ruzius <dave.ruz...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Love (!) the article and exactly the question we at TheWorks.cz are
> > currently faced with. Jellies are great but not really sustainable. Will
> > investigate who is willing to pitch-in to create our own 'club-house' as
> > that's how it should feel.. created and supported by the peeps themselves...
>
> > TheWorks.cz
> > Dave Ruzius
>

> > On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 5:48 PM, Beth Buczynski <bethbo...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> >> How can you know that there’s enough demand for a coworking space in
> >> your town without personally polling each and every remote worker or
> >> freelancer in a 20 mile radius?
>
> >> In this article three space owners share their ideas for gauging
> >> interest, and knowing when both you and your community are ready for a
> >> shared work space.
>
> >> Hope it can be helpful to the many future space owners on this list..
>
> >>http://www.shareable.net/blog/is-your-community-ready-for-coworking
>
> >> Thanks to Gerard Sychay of CincyCoworks, Joel Bennett of Veel Hoeden,
> >> Angel Kwiatkowski of Cohere Coworking Community, and Alice Kaerast for
> >> their input!
>
> >> --
> >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> >> "Coworking" group.
> >> To post to this group, send email to cowo...@googlegroups.com.
> >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

> >> coworking+...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>
> >> .

> >> For more options, visit this group at
> >>http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
>
> > --
> > Dave Ruzius
> >http://www.theworks.cz
>
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "Coworking" group.
> > To post to this group, send email to cowo...@googlegroups.com.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

> > coworking+...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>
> > .

[Angel K]

We started in a temporary space. The business incubator loaned us this
sort of awkward overly large reception area. We'd drag tables and
chairs from the back and huddle around outlets (sometimes sharing an
outlet and toggling back and forth!). There were also no amenities
like a coffee pot so we would go out as a group to find our coffee and
snacks which provided us an organic way to get to know one another.

Anyway, being in that weird/donated space really helped us bond as a
group. You just don't have a choice when you're sitting shoulder to
shoulder with people. When we ran out of chairs and broke the wifi
connection, we knew it was time to find a more permanent home.

Angel

> > >> coworking+...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2Bunsubscribe@googlegroups .com>

> > >> .
> > >> For more options, visit this group at
> > >>http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
>
> > > --
> > > Dave Ruzius
> > >http://www.theworks.cz
>
> > > --
> > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > > "Coworking" group.
> > > To post to this group, send email to cowo...@googlegroups.com.
> > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

> > > coworking+...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2Bunsubscribe@googlegroups .com>

[David Troy]

I love this discussion of temporary space; I really think it's true that when you start around community and not around a particular space, the culture gets pushed in that direction, and I think that's very healthy.

We started meeting in a coffee shop (3 months) and then spent about 14 months in a small-ish "temporary" space, which in some ways was a little too permanent; the space we really wanted was not available until June 2010.

By the time we moved into the new space, we had already established some culture that carried over from the prior space. If I had to do it over again, I would have pushed to get our current space sooner; not because it wasn't helpful to spend some time "in the desert", bonding in small quarters, but because our new space provides much more room for interaction and generally reflects the culture we're trying to build better than the previous space did.

So we're just now getting to some things (true self governance, cleaning, etc) after nearly 2 years that would have happened within the first 6-8 months if we hadn't had to "wait" to get setup here.

Others have said it and I'll repeat it: it's all about the people. But being in the right space at the right time for your group is helpful, and what works in the beginning may not work later. The trick is to figure out how to best connect your community to the space so that it produces the culture you're aiming for, and the only way to do that is to stay attuned to the community's needs and desires as it evolves.

So based on our experience, I'd say spending 3-6 months in a "temporary" space can be a lot of fun and a way to build and test culture; beyond that I think you risk institutionalizing behaviors and conceptions that are later hard to break out of. We've done that. But the line between temporary and permanent is a fine one.

Dave
--
Beehive Baltimore
Community Coworking in Baltimore

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