Small Coworking Space: Is it too small? (Slight math problem)

[Kyle Thibaut]

Hi everyone,

We have about 600 sqft of open space in our coworking space. Is there anyone else out there with a small space like ours? 

• What have you learned to make it work well? 
• Is it too small such that voices carry over and disturb others?
  
• Have you made any creative solutions to help out with having a small space?
• Bonus: What sqft per person-desk is needed and how many members per desk is normal? In this case, what would critical mass look like?

Thanks,

Kyle

[steve suard]

I do have a small open space and I want to know as well the same question you ask.

[Mark]

Hi Kyle, 

Wow - I'm just looking at starting a space and I'm inspired to hear that you've done it with 600 sq ft! 

I have no idea how much space I'd need (I'm still in community building/research mode) but the research I've looked at suggests you need 100 sq ft per person which included toilets/corridors/kitchens/receptions etc. - on that basis though the "hypothetical" amount of people you could have would be 6 which frankly, is ridiculous!

I currently run a small design agency out of space that's exactly 620 sq ft (which includes 150 sq ft meeting room) and I'm sure I could easily fit more than 6 people in it. If you swapped out the meeting room for smaller, quieter phone booth type spaces where people could take calls then I would think we could easily fit desks that could accommodate at least 12 people and that would be desks alone - presumably some people would be happy to work at a counter height standing or bar stool type surface which would definitely be more efficient in terms of space usage.

I'd also be really interested to hear other peoples' views about smaller spaces and the different techniques they use to make them work.

hope that's helpful in some small way! 

All the best

Mark

[Tony Bacigalupo]

Howdy friends!

The 100 square foot model is used as a general rule of thumb when planning what are typically much larger projects. Whenever I've looked at a space, I've just used good old measurements and pen and paper to come up with my own numbers :-)

When it comes to a smaller space, it's really a matter of what success looks like to you.

A space of that size, for instance, is unlikely to generate enough revenue to pay any salaries, or generate profits of any consequence at all. 

Does that mean it can't be successful? Heck no! So long as you go in with the right expectations. 

Running a small space may mean low profits, but it also means minimal overhead. If you have other ways of making a living, this can be a nice way to reduce your office rent!

Mark, for instance, runs a design agency. This is what I've found to be the very best model for small coworking communities, because both businesses support each other and defray some risk. 

There are lots of agency + coworking spaces that have been running sustainably for many years, perhaps most notably the Cowo Project in Italy where over 100 agencies are all linked together using a coworking model. 

In addition to the numbers, of course, creating a diverse environment of nice people offers all sorts of benefits.

What does success look like to you?

Tony

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[Jerome Chang]

I typically design for 60-70 sf/person, inclusive of all hallways, meeting rooms, kitchen and bathrooms. And no, I don't count the meeting room seats into that 60-70.

Jerome

www.BLANKSPACES.com

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[Tabari Brannon]

Hi, Kyle we started off with 450 sqft of open space, we have 16  seats.  7 fixed seats and 9 flex seats. 

[Angel Kwiatkowski]

Hi Kyle,

Cohere's first space was 1,000 ft2 total and that included a reception area, small meeting room, living room, phone room, conference room and an open coworking room. We also had a loft with a low ceiling accessible by ladder so that doesn't really count as anything.

We had 11 work stations in about 300 ft2. 4 of them were reserved desks and the rest were flex desks. We were able to grow to 30 members in that space before we moved to a larger space. Current Cohere does coworking in only 357 ft 2 where we have 11 workstations (must be my lucky number). The remaining 2,200 ft2 is spread over 4 floors. We have 7 private offices, a closet turned phone room, 2 small phone rooms, 3 bathrooms, living room, small meeting room and large conference room. Using all our square footage, I am maxed out at 65 members in this configuration. I've attached  a photo of the coworking room.

To answer your questions, 11 people in a room isn't that many especially if you have phone rooms for them to go to. Here is a post I wrote on the value of physical density http://coherecommunity.com/blog/physical-density-when-innovation-happens-in-coworking-spaces

Smart furniture and layout and clever use of limited power strips is the key.

Our largest desks are 4 ft by 2ft. 

For 600 feet of coworking space, you could probably mix 20 different types of members together knowing that we operate like gyms...oversell the desks b/c not everyone will work on the same day. 

Here is a video tour of Cohere so you can see the unique layout and just how much space there is outside of the actual "coworking" room. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMt0gQFbLdo

I've since removed the dark couch in the hallway and replaced it with 2 small standing desks from Ikea to handle overflow.

Angel

[Alex Ahom]

Just come back from a number of spaces in the Netherlands and London built for 10-20 people. 

FYI there were doing VERY VERY well.

community and MONEY wise

Regards,

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexahom/

[Ray Doeksen]

As a space organizer (makerspace, hackerspace) and a product/furniture designer I'm very interested in how to tailor the built environment to maximize the space available to all users.

I'm interested in hearing from anyone that has used any particularly notable 'space hacks' or special fixtures, furnishings and equipment to maximize the floor space available, and in PARTICULAR, to create flexible or shifting-use spaces.

With most coworkers having a phone, tablet, laptop to work from ... I'd expect those small products to be essential to making the most of a space ...

Do you have flip-down wall desks? Ceiling-mounted power drops? Things that fold up and away? Wall-hung folding chairs? Did you select smaller chairs and other furniture than you would have otherwise? Did you arrange for things to be stowed away when not in use, like aboard a boat? Nets on the walls to hold things, that sort of thing? Did you move towards more compact solutions like wall hooks for coats rather than the retro but popular "coat tree" style of things?

How about a lofted area? Any clever use of small nooks?

And, finally ... for any size space, did you use space planning software, like an interior design or architecture program such as Revit, to help with space planning, or something like making a scale model on paper or with foam blocks to wargame your space planning?

[Mark]

Hi Ray, 

For what it's worth, when I start thinking about space I'm going to be using Google Sketchup in the first instance to map out the space. If you've got a spare evening it's really easy to learn, free and really helps me whenever I'm planning space - I did an extension on my house with it and it offers the ability to drop in furniture from an online library (to save you drawing everything out).

Hope that helps

Mark

[Jeannine van der Linden]

All of the spaces in our network are small.  About half of them operate from a "spare space" kind of model, where the coworking space is not the owner/tenant. So the total space is larger than the space available for coworking.

It is certainly doable, how you do it depends very much on where the space is located.  One of our spaces is in a village of 3,072 souls unless Mrs. Janssen has had the baby in which case it is 3,073. :-) Coworking looks very different there than in Amsterdam, even though the square footage is roughly the same.

When looking at small spaces it is important to have a deep understanding of the location and the people who live there, and is worth quite a lot of research.

But the very first thing I think is to do your very best to divorce yourself completely from the rental arbitrage model of coworking, because that model does not work in small towns or in small spaces,and go over to a sharing model.  (Or something else, but sharing is what we have come up with).  Think of your furniture as a prop on a stage and not as a permanent installation.  

Critical mass for us is this:  if the space is 50% occupied on an ongoing basis -- not just on popular days but structurally -- it is time to start looking for a new space.  At about 70% it becomes uncomfortable and inflexible and you lose the benefits of the coworking setup I think.

[Ray Doeksen]

Sometimes I do teach people SketchUp, but no, I prefer just about anything else ... I do like the many available models for furniture, but I don't like the basic drawing function very much; I prefer a CAD tool with parametric control of some kind. 

SketchUp is free, and I know there are people that can make it seem to do just about anything, but I really prefer just about anything else (Fusion 360, for one) for anything relatively complicated. I do use Revit for some things, but I'm looking for something somewhere in between those extremes, too. 

[Angel Kwiatkowski]

Here is a more accurate look of Cohere numbers, use and revenue. http://coherecommunity.com/consulting/small-coworking-revenue-and-use-mix

On Sunday, October 15, 2017 at 8:09:59 AM UTC-6, Kyle Thibaut wrote:

[ma...@deskcowork.co.uk]

We started with a space of 1000sqf, I agree with everyone below - it's all about the way you design the space.

But my advice is, don't get hung up on that. Start with what suits the numbers and keep changing the space as you go along. Let it evolve. Year and a half later and I am finally satisfied that we have the perfect layout for our members.

Also agree with everything Tony said - Work out what you're doing it for and your growth plan if you have one - if you are content on building an awesome community and group of people who thrive together and become friends, and you dont need a salary, then you should be just fine. However for us we hope to make this a business that can give people jobs - our 1000sqf is working out to pay 1 living wage salary, however looking forward we want to expand that when we have the numbers where we want them.

[Trevor Townsend]

Hi all - I just joined this group after searching "small coworking spaces".  

I'm opening my own space (hopefully) in October, and I have no more than 1,050sqft to work with.  

Early 2017 and I've bought the second floor of a ~ 167-year-old house in a smart little town commuting distance to a 1 million strong gov/tech/art city.  

The place was a disaster when I bought it, but it was in THE perfect area; right dead-centre in a busy confluence.  I put a lot of muscle and (newly-found) renovation skills to work and turned it into a gem (hardwood, sliding glass doors, kitchen).  It has a colonial industrial modern-ish feel.  I'm aiming for a bespoke kind of place - something comfortable, charming, and inviting.

The 1,050 sqft includes everything - small maintenance/server/storage room, 2-piece washroom, small galley kitchen (fridge, stove, microwave, sink, dishwasher), 2 small meeting rooms, and a large open area that's 22'x20'.  

There is no reception area - the space is entirely automated through SaltoKS (access control), Uquiti Unifi wifi (networking), and Office R&D (member relationship management).  

From the website, any prospective member can join a plan and will instantly be given credentials and a link to a smartphone app.  They log in, push a big virtual button, and the doors unlock for them.  The outside door is shared with another business, my entrance door is mine alone.  

They can also have a key fob (with a deposit) to access the space.  there are 24 small lockers (1'x1.5'x1.5') that members can use (don't think I'll charge for that, yet).  

Temperature is web-enabled and automated, and I'll have a low-profile CCTV system monitoring the space for my members' safety.

I never have to be in the space for it to run - cleaners will be in daily at ~10pm.

I toiled a bit over how-much-space-does-a-member-need.  To a great degree, I'm winging it - I've had custom furniture made for the space (from India, industrial-style leather, wood, and iron).  This arrives next week and I'm literally going to put the furniture into the space, move it around until I like the arrangement, then open the doors.  I'm perfectly game to make adjustments to suit what the members need and want.

I'll be using the space myself 2-3 days per week, which is why I did this in the first place:  My home office had left me feeling lonely and without fidelity-to-purpose.  I looked around for a coworking/collaboration space of any kind, and there were none.  So, I built one.

My marketing so far has been textbook organic - word is spreading by good ole fashioned word-of-mouth and my professional encounters.

My short-term plan is to get the space paying for itself by attracting like-minded people from the immediate area - this is a smart little ville, there's plenty of smarts nearby.

A well-known docu/filmmaker that I came to be friends with after buying my place has expressed real interest in being semi-regular bringing a few people with him.  A friend who is an executive at a national arts facility has asked to be able to hold their 3-4 retreats per year here (and I been granted bragging rights!).

My only real mental barrier is on pricing - amount, type, etc.

I should be able to arrange 4-5 3'x6' tables with 4 task chairs each (16-20 seats), another 10 seats on 2 couches and 6 club chairs.  Somewhere between 26 and 30 seats, packed - that's full to the brim.  I'm using 25 as the magic capacity number and only a modest leverage of 20% against chance vacancies, meaning I could sell 30 memberships.

I don't want to be considering dedicated desks at this point, because there are occasions where I will rent the entire space for events and special training sessions.

I'm thinking of:

• Hours of 6am to 10pm, 7 days
• Full-time membership, open hours for ~C$300/month
• Part-time, 72 hours per month for ~C200
• Evenings and weekends, 5pm-10pm m-f, 6am-10pm s&s $150
• Weekends only, 6am-10pm Saturday and Sunday $100
• Per day, any day $35
• Rent the space for a day, ~C$1,500 (it's very well-appointed)

I'll try and stay in touch here with how things progress.

Pardon the long post, but I thought this would be a good place to blurt that all out.  :-)

Cheers,

Trevor

[Ten Below]

Our entire space is less than 800 sq ft and we are making it work. As a proof of concept, we now have 34 members with the majority purchasing 10-day passes with many now renewing their passes.

The challenge we are now facing is privacy for calls and online conferencing. Does anyone have any cost-effective phone booth ideas that they have implemented?

Thanks,

Richard

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[Trevor Townsend]

Hey Richard,

I recently did a quick search on eBay for used phone booths and you can find quite a few.  I saw some nice vintage/retro ones for ~$1-2,000.  I'm sure you could diy the same thing for cheaper.

Can I ask you - how much are you 10-day passes and what are you hours of operation? 

Cheers,

Trevor

(Sent from mobile)

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[Alex Hillman]

Just a word of warning: 

I bought one of those vintage phone booths back in the day. It's an awesome looking piece of furniture but it's not really effective for being a phone booth in a shared workspace...there's basically no sound isolation and it's pretty uncomfortable to sit in. 

In hindsight, I'd save that money and put it towards building something with drywall, insulation, and some kind of air ventilation.

In such a small space, you might also consider setting the expectation that it's just not a great spot for phone calls/video conferencing. That's what we did when we were ~1200 square feet in our original space. It limits who can be a member, but it creates some valuable constraints that help people understand the kind of work they might do in your coworking space compared to a "typical" office (focused/heads down work and 1-1/small team collaborative work). 

-Alex

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The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.

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[Ten Below]

Trevor,

Thanks. You can see our Plans & Pricing here https://10belowcoworking.org/

Alex,

Thanks for the heads up on booths. Yes, we include a statement about phone usage in our FAQs https://10belowcoworking.org/flyby/#faq

Our meeting room is currently underutilized and we are considering sectioning off a corner as a private phone room. As our space is small we are actively listening to member needs and privacy is quickly rising to the forefront.

Richard

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[Cowork Hut]

Even we started our coworking with a capacity For 20 members Which is situated in Bangalore mg road feel free to check our website 

https://coworkhut.com