Lessons from the first year of operating our coworking space

[Matt D.]

Hey everyone. 

I own a space in Nashville, Tennessee, here in the US, and we've just hit our one-year anniversary. We decided to write a blog post with lessons we've learned along the way, and we included a lot of data about membership numbers, revenue, expenses, etc...

There's also a link at the bottom of the post to download a 12-page PDF that we created with much of the same info and data, in case that's an easier read. It also contains a spreadsheet view of our revenue and expenses that might be helpful for those planning a new space. 

The post is here: http://www.theskillery.com/blog/2015/7/8/lessons-from-our-first-year-of-running-a-coworking-space

Hope y'all find it helpful. Would love to hear your thoughts, and we're happy to answer questions via the blog comments, and/or here, or wherever...

Thanks!

Matt

The Skillery

theskillery.com | @theskillery

[Jeannine]

Hi, Matt!

I love this.  Can we put it on the Global Coworking Blog?  Maybe we should break it up into a couple blog posts?  

Also, I am working on a starter kit for new spaces, and I have some ideas about integrating this into it, if you wouldn't mind.  :-)

Cheers,

Jeannine

[Ramon Suarez]

Excellent post Matt :) Shared all over the place

[Alex Hillman]

Matt, this post is epic. Thank you so much for sharing, this will help a lot of people!!

-Alex

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[Gretchen Bilbro]

Hi Matt!
Excellent post! Thanks for sharing.

Gretchen
Cultivate Coworking

[Paige Calvert]

Yes, thank you for sharing! 

I am curious about your "License Fee" revenue. What is that?

[Jamie Russo]

Matt, thanks for sharing! I second the question on the licensing fee...

[Melissa T. Goldman]

Thank you so much, Matt, for taking the time to compile all of this and share it in the spirit of open source community. 

Really fantastic work and so immensely helpful to those of us in the planning phase.

Melissa

__

Melissa Tapper Goldman

alliedfields.com

On Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 7:34:02 AM UTC-4, Matt D. wrote:

[Matt D.]

Hi everyone. 

Sorry for the delay — I've been traveling. I'm going to try to respond to some of your posts, below:

Melissa, Jamie, Gretchen, Alex and Ramon - you're welcome! We're happy to share. 

Jeannine - you're more than welcome to link to the post and share it however you like, absolutely! We're happy to chat about developing it further, if you like. Hit us up via email (theskillery.com/contact).

Some of you asked a question about the "license fee" that's part of our revenue. Great question. This is comprised of one, two or all three of the following things:

1. A coffee shop just opened in our building. Before they opened, I invited them to operate a pop-up coffee shop our of our kitchenette. This gave them nine months of operational experience before they moved into their own space. My deal with them was that they pay us a monthly stipend to cover utilities (which shows up in the license fee) and they had to give our members free coffee. They  moved out a few months ago, leaving us without their licensing fee, and, more importantly, without their coffee. =)
2. I invited a local writers collective to call The Skillery home. They hold their classes in our space, and their two directors are full-time members. We also list their writing classes on the /classes page of our website. This is a slightly unique arrangement from a typical membership, so we consider them "licensees" and they pay us a monthly fee to call The Skillery their home. 
3. We invited a local company to occupy the 1,700 square foot section in the rear of our space. They use it for client work 5-10 days per month. When not in use, the space is still available to our members. We consider this company a "roommate". This is a good situation for us for a few reasons:
1. First and foremost, we like these people. We have known them for a long time, and are glad to see them in our space on a daily basis. 
2. We like the work they do. They teach design thinking, prototyping, empathy, storytelling, and other skills that we feel are a good fit for our members and our community. 
3. They furnished the space that they license from us, which saved us capital expenses in the early days. That meant that we didn't have to pay to furnish almost 1/3 of our space. 
4. Their space is stocked with whiteboards, flexible furniture, and tons of post-it notes. Our members love the resources back there. 
5. Their license fee pays half of our rent. 

These arrangements are unique. They are more than memberships. They are possible for us because our space is big enough to accommodate them, but, more importantly, because the people involved understand that they are part of a shared space. A community. They are good roommates, tenants, licensees, members and friends. These relationships work. Nonetheless, the agreements are month-to-month, and we're constantly reevaluating whether they're a good fit. 

Happy to answer other questions!

-Matt

[Jennifer Kready]

Fabulous resources and it was shared on the GCUC page, too.

I'm intrigued by your license fee for the extra space that you can utilize, as well.  Makes me think that a larger space may not be a bad thing.  Will present to our cowork community, too.

[Anca Mosoiu]

This is so helpful and timely!  Thanks so much for sharing, Matt.  

Anca.

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[Matt D.]

You're welcome, Jennifer and Anca. 

Happy to share.

[Yvonne English]

This is amazing. I absolutely love that folks in this industry is so collaborative and supportive of one another. #SoNotLiketheCorporateWorld   :-)

On Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 7:34:02 AM UTC-4, Matt D. wrote:

[Matt D.]

You're welcome, Yvonne! We're happy to share.

-MD

[Yvonne J. English]

Wow. I just saw my grammatical error. So sorry for that...my enthusiasm muscle appears to be larger than my grammatical one. Thanks again!

Yvonne J. English | YvonneEnglish.com

Executive Director, eCenter@LindenPointe | www.eCenterLindenPointe.com
Executive Director, Grove City College Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation | www.GCCEntrepreneurship.com
Co-Founder, BuzzBurrito | www.BuzzBurrito.com 
Founder, Social Animal Media | www.SocialAnimalMedia.com

[sh...@colab-factory.com]

Wow Matt !

Awesome information, really great read, very helpful.

Building out our space now, so reading this now was a revelation!

Shane

On Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 7:34:02 AM UTC-4, Matt D. wrote:

[Benjamin]

That sound is me applauding you...a meaningful and generous share...

--Benjamin

On Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 7:34:02 AM UTC-4, Matt D. wrote:

[Matt D.]

You're welcome, Shane and Benjamin. Glad it was helpful!

-Matt