Sharing Business Plan, interested in connecting with people in SoCal

[Tamra Johnson]

I found this group through the Economist article that Jessie was featured in a few weeks ago - thank you for adding me. 

I spent time developing this business concept almost a year ago, and used a class project during business school at UCLA Anderson to develop a plan and financials (attached). It's great to now 'meet' some of the people behind the models we were studying. At the end of the project I was hesitant to move further because of our projected capital investments. Coming across this group has gotten me excited again about the need, and has gotten me to thinking about ways to be creative in decreasing capital requirements..

My background is in business and engineering, and I'm passionate about providing ways for women to remain professionally engaged once they start families. I live in Southern California (Venice/Santa Monica), so would love to connect with others in this area. 

-Tamra

[Aliza Torok Schlabach]

Hi Tamra,

Welcome to the group! Very interesting documents - thank you so much for sharing these with us.

I skimmed through the spreadsheet, and the big number that stood out to me was your proposal for $25/hour for child care. Have you spoken with potential community members/clients yet to find out if anyone would actually pay that number (plus coworking fees)?? Out here I think the limit is more like $12-$15/hour.

Also, the capital investments sound very large... I would be concerned about being able to recoop that level of investment. 

Keep us posted, and best of luck!

 

Aliza Schlabach
Founder

Coworking for Parents / Juice Box

www.CoworkingForParents.com

215.858.4658

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[Marieke Hensel]

Hey Tamra,

Thank you so much for sharing that info! Very much appreciated. Its really well presented info!

I am near you, we are actually starting up a similar space in North Orange County (Fullerton). Next week, we have an info night where interested people are joining us to discuss and plan. I am already running a coworking space for 4 years now, and the intention is to open up a kids place next door. We already have the place, and 3 kids (my own, ha), and I have interested people using our coworking space that would love to bring in their kids - but I am not completely comfortable offering daycare. 

But I currently have a hard time making the numbers work. I was thinking of opening up on specific days for when there is current demand and grow from there. The issue is that its not possible to run a licensed daycare from my place, as we don't have an outside area. 

We have a lease until the end of 2013 and hopefully grow out of this to go into a bigger space. :-) Although our location is hard to beat, we are in the middle of downtown Fullerton (a place full of restaurants and bars), in the oldest commercial building of Fullerton. We have 1500 square foot kids space, and 1800 square foot office space. The kitchen and restrooms are in the building and not part of this square footage. We currently have about 10-15 people a day working in the space. And a few startups have sprouted from here. 

:-)

Marieke
-- 

Marieke Hensel

http://twitter.com/hensel

1-877-747-FAME (3263)

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[Diana Rothschild]

Tamra,

Very nice presentation and it looks like a lot of work went into your #s. I'm finding some similarity in terms of capital expense to start-up and staffing expense, but I'd consider renting a bigger space on both sides based on the # of people you'd like to host. I am excited to speak with you tomorrow to share what else I've learned in my research up in San Francisco! There are so many ways to go about skinning this cat, so glad you are thinking through it. You also may want to join the Google Group "coworking" which recently had a good discussion about the coworking + childcare model (spearheaded by Jessie!)...

Thanks, diana

[Tamra Johnson]

Thanks for the welcomes and feedback!

Aliza: 

We were assuming $20/hr (cell B29 on Inputs tab). We were working off of the cost for on-call nannies, which includes both a $14-$16 hourly rate and a $30-$50 placement fee. BUT - I do agree our number is probably too high, and though this is similar to on-call nannies in terms of flexibility, we want/need repeat customers using it regularly, not just for the once in a while pinch. The big capital number was what caused me to put plans on the shelf in December, though I think those numbers could come down with a smaller facility, by finding a location that doesn't require a full build-out, etc. 

Marieke:

Awesome. Let me know if you'd like to brainstorm or talk numbers at all. It sounds like you have a good foundation, and now just need to figure out how to make it work. 

Diana:

Thanks, and looking forward to speaking to you too!