previous threads on having multiple locations?

[Alex Linsker]

Hi all,

Other than searching the Google Group for "multiple locations", what would you recommend searching for, for info on coworking places with multiple locations? Collective Agency is almost signed on our third location in Portland and I'm curious to see what questions have come up for people who've done this before. 

The vision is for each location to be slightly different, with locally influenced community and different amenities, but a similar overall feel. This will be our second location for members (the other location is just for event rentals right now, but could become for members in the future).

Questions I have:

- the pros and cons of members of each location having membership at all the locations. (Most members at the main location will not want to switch, and all will want the ability to come to our main location, but about 1 in 10 people are interested in mainly being at the third location.)

- the pros and cons of having multiple web pages, one for each location.

- local experimentation: the best ways to try new policies at one location, and when to try something and when to not try something.

- pros and cons of local parties vs combining locations for parties? Do you rotate locations sometimes, and combine sometimes?

- local governance: including, when applicable, what benefits have your members said they've had from being involved in governance? Do any places have local representatives from each location get together to talk governance for the organization overall?

Thanks,

Alex Linsker http://CollectiveAgency.co/

[Jeannine van der Linden]

HI. Alex,

We are at five locations now, and we have the same vision as you describe:  the separate locations are very much particular to their cities.  This is partly because around here the identity of a city is a firmly established fact for the Dutch and is important to the identity of the people and businesses located there.  It is also partly due to my own belief that every place has a sort of energy, almost a soul, which ought to be respected. :-)  Each of our locations has a speciallty and each is a differnt kind of space with different sectors involved in its community as well.

It is important to be clear in communication abotu what they all share, and in how they all are different.  I made a great bollocks of this in the beginning and found it very tricky to get right.  In the end I settled on what we guarantee and why people should go with us instead of somebody else as what we share, which seems to work well.

To answer your quesitons:

:

- the pros and cons of members of each location having membership at all the locations. (Most members at the main location will not want to switch, and all will want the ability to come to our main location, but about 1 in 10 people are interested in mainly being at the third location.)

After some fooling around we settled on everyone being a coworker in a home space and letting them use the facilities and attend events at the others "as if they were" or "on the same basis as" members in the other spaces.  Very few people are able it turns out to think of themselves as being members of a network coworking space and they are more comfortable having a home place and being welcome in the others like a cousin or something.  Everything int he other spaces is still organized by the one point of contact, usually the Community Manager in the home space.  SOme of my long term coworkers still have me do it even knowing that it isn';t really my job. I don't mind it, it really is just an excuse to touch base I think. .

 

- the pros and cons of having multiple web pages, one for each location.

We are just in development on one web page for all the locations, because it was a pain int he butt to have separate ones.  Probably if you are better organized than I am you can manage it; but if you are doing it you shoudl probably link them to each other to encourage the free flow of communicatiuon and information.

 

- local experimentation: the best ways to try new policies at one location, and when to try something and when to not try something.

We try new things out in whichever location dreams it up or has most need of it, and then we let the folsk in the other locations know anbotu it as it develops.  If it works well we then offer it to all the locations when it is out of beta as it were.

- pros and cons of local parties vs combining locations for parties? Do you rotate locations sometimes, and combine sometimes?

We have one monthly gathering to which everyone is invitied and it rolls from location to location, from north to south in the country actually, so nobody has it more than once every couple of months.  Coworkers have the option of inviting coworkers to their events/workshops/courses/what have you or only inviting members of their own space.  Each space is free to arrange anything other than the monthly gathering and invite whomever they wish.

  

- local governance: including, when applicable, what benefits have your members said they've had from being involved in governance? Do any places have local representatives from each location get together to talk governance for the organization overall?

The 80-20 rule applies here.  Though I have found that the people interested in governance also often want to run their own space. This has happenned so far twice adn is in the process of happening for one more.  I am considering creating a formal process to encourage this as it is a good deal of fun.

Let me know if you have any more questions, it's an inexhaustible source of conversation!

Best,

Jeannine

[Matt G]

Hey Jeannine,

Thank you for that reply to Alex, it's really really useful. While we only have one small location we hope to open a second next year by the success  we are fortunate to be having, so these sorts of questions also cross my mind.

You say your spaces are throughout the country? are any of them in the same town as each other?

Thanks,
Matt

[Jeannine van der Linden]

The rule of thumb for me now is: when the physical space is 50% full on an ongoing basis, it is time to start looking at real estate. Because for us that has been the tipping point/warning that it is about to get a lot less flxible with sharing, and that is not really negotiable for us.

This does not always mean moving, when the amsterdam location got a little too friendly recently we expanded within the building we were already in.  

We do not have any spaces in the same town or city.  We have one location near Schiphol Airport which is spitting distance to the location in Amsterdam but as the Real Amsterdammers *and* the people fo Rijsenhout keep telling me, outside the Ring (the perimeter highway around Amsterdam)  is Not Amsterdam in terms of identity. :-)

I would myself only try that under certain conditions, and thise conditions involve differentiation.  Either a different coworker community or a different type of space, something like that.  I woudl for example take on a new office type location in Den Bosch, because the current location is in a warehouse space and so the community is primarily retail.  FO rme that would be necessary to dare it; I think I would not try to balance the same community over two spaces.  I could manage two allied communities over two spaces though.

Does that make sense?

[Jamie Russo]

Alex,

Here are a few folks with multiple locations that you might reach out to, or do secondary research on their websites:

Blankspaces (LA)

Workbar (Boston)

COCO (Minneapolis)

The Commondesk (Dallas)

Link (Austin)

Grind (NY, Chicago)

Best,

Jamie Russo

Founder, Enerspace Coworking

Host, Everything Coworking Podcast

Executive Director Global Workspace Association

[Alex Linsker]

Thanks Jeannine and Jamie for your suggestions! 

Jamie, thanks, I'll look at all those places.

Jeannine, I love thinking about cities and places in the way you wrote at the start of your email, would like to talk more and hear how you think about that, either on a phone call or online, whichever you prefer. 

Could you say more about what all your places share and how they are different?

You write 'the Community Manager in the home space' is the main organizer for each location; do you mean there's one person at one main location for you, who is contacted for all the locations, or each location has a person who is physically there most of the time who is the organizer?

That's lovely to hear about the rolling/rotating parties across the locations, I'd love to do that.

You write it's a lot of fun when members start their own locations; could you write more about why/how it's fun? (Collective Agency members have independently started at least 5 locations of which at least 3 are still continuing, plus private offices often modeled on us, often when there is a split in a requirement, like another city/location, a specific demographic niche, a corporate request, or when a certain ethos or experiment is desired by two or more members that wouldn't fit within the Community Guidelines. Gangplank in Chandler Arizona has a licensing model that I always love hearing about.)

It's helpful to hear about membership at one location and 'as if membership' at the other locations, people have suggested that. I'm wondering for key and alarm access, how that works? (I could see having the same alarm code at each location, or different codes at each location. To start, we'll have different door key systems at each location; magnetic key fob at one, and metal key at the others.) Do you have one key and code for all locations, or are there resident members who open and close, and members at other locations can visit during those hours?

How do people at the various places dream up ideas and make them happen? Do they ever do that without going through a Community Manager or you? Do you tend to have one person at a time or groups of people who come up with ideas and make them happen? What roles/autonomy do they have, and are their roles/autonomy broadly written down?

Right now with 2 locations I'm seeing confusion/disappointment sometimes, and joy/excitement/surprise sometimes (of all the emotions, it's mostly excitement/anticipation), that one place is physically different with different amenities than the other. 

We have an Instagram account shown on all our website pages that seems to be a main emotional connection for many people. The disappointed people want either wood and brick Loft, or white-wall Gallery, but not both, and showing the second location reduces inquiries in the first location, and showing the first location reduces expectation for the second location. 

So I could see having different Instagram accounts for each location, and show the main Instagram at the top, and the second Instagram below, and then Facebook and other more community/human things, to share, and the Membership page to share (as long as members at the third location want the same rates as the main location). Or I could see just having enough variety in the Instagram, the same way we currently have variety of photos with humans (which attract most people more) and photos without humans (which attract some other people more).

Alex http://collectiveagency.co/

--

Alex Linsker | Business Owner

Collective Agency

(503) 517-6900 office | (503) 369-9174 mobile

322 NW Sixth Ave, Suite 200 | Portland, Oregon 97209

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[Alex Linsker]

Hi Matt, 

I'm interested in being in a group of people who have or are starting multiple locations; feel free to reach out directly for one-on-one or group conversations anytime. I'm at +1 (503) 517-6900 in the U.S. (Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm PST), or al...@collectiveagency.co and can do the internet phone/video chat things like Skype too, where I'm 'alexlinsker'. 

Alex

--

Alex Linsker | Business Owner

Collective Agency

(503) 517-6900 office | (503) 369-9174 mobile

322 NW Sixth Ave, Suite 200 | Portland, Oregon 97209

[Chad Ballantyne]

We’re launching another 1 hour away.  We’ll post the journey later this summer.

Chad Ballantyne

705.812.0689

ch...@thecreativespace.ca

Barrie's Coworking Community

Perfect for small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs.

12 Dunlop St E, Barrie Ontario, L4M 1A3

Memberships start at $25/mth

www.thecreativespace.ca

705-812-0689

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[Jeannine van der Linden]

Hiya, Alex.

Jeannine, I love thinking about cities and places in the way you wrote at the start of your email, would like to talk more and hear how you think about that, either on a phone call or online, whichever you prefer. 

Could you say more about what all your places share and how they are different?

Oh, I can go on and on.  I promise not to though. :-)  I think if you try to put the same formula in a differnt place, you get punished for violating its soul by the distance people feel from your business. And they are right of course, because it is not then in fact about them but about your formula. It can work or not work, but if it does work, you find that what works is a lot of people striving towards being something they are not.  Or people who are displaced, feeling at home for once.  Which is a differnt kind of distance.

Everywhere in Europe you will find a thing called an American Bar.  I like them, actually, as I am an American in Europe.  But there is an artificiality, which is what there is to like, about them.Its authenticity is a meta-authenticity:  we are authentically playiong at having an American Experience in and as imagined by people who are not now nor do they really want to be American -- except for that couple of hours. 

It is a beautiful experience, But not an organic one.

What we all have in common are a few things:  We have the same contracts and the same terms of use with a few additions -- the spaces with storage and logistics have some bits about insurance which the others do not; and the office spaces have bits about leaving your stuff there which the warehouse spaces do not.  But in general they are the same.  We have the same invoicing.  We have the same onboarding and graduation practices.

In all of the locations in principle coworkers are renting the entire space on the basis of sharing it with everybody else, and our job is to manage the sharing so it is seamless and keep track of use and bill it out so everybody pays for what they use.  All coworkers have the ability to move back and forth in membership plan from moth to month.  They all pay in advance for a calendar month, and they all can cancel or change at any time durng a calendar month which is already paid.  They all have access to the internal network.

In all our spaces the fiorst principle is to hire, recruit, buy and sell within a community of earned trust.  We think the first place to look for anything is within the community.

In all of them every coworker is valued as a member of the community, whether they are at the entry level of membership or almost ready to graduate.

We approach the coworkers at each location as a community in its own right, but consider them allied to the other communities in the network and encourage cross-community contact.

How they are different might take me all day.  The physically smallest setting is in Rijsenhout, a village with 3000 residents and the largest is, well, Amsterdam.  But the physically smallest location is I think in Amsterdam (though this may not be true any more, just expanded from half a floor to a whole floor in the building).

You write 'the Community Manager in the home space' is the main organizer for each location; do you mean there's one person at one main location for you, who is contacted for all the locations, or each location has a person who is physically there most of the time who is the organizer?

No, all our coworkers have the one point of contact, usually the Community Manager in their home space, who is officially responsible for arranging things for them. So if one of the coworkers in Kamer52 in Oosterhout wants to go to Amsterdam, the Community Manager in Oosterhout, arranges whatever needs to be arranged.

For my long term coworkers it is sometimes me still, because I was doing all the jobs when they came in.

By preference the Community Manger is a coworker on conhtract, usually somebody in adminstrative services, management services, or bokkeeping which I think is logical.

You write it's a lot of fun when members start their own locations; could you write more about why/how it's fun? (Collective Agency members have independently started at least 5 locations of which at least 3 are still continuing, plus private offices often modeled on us, often when there is a split in a requirement, like another city/location, a specific demographic niche, a corporate request, or when a certain ethos or experiment is desired by two or more members that wouldn't fit within the Community Guidelines. Gangplank in Chandler Arizona has a licensing model that I always love hearing about.)

So far everyone who has started a new space has done it with some kind of relationship with the mothership as it were.  For all of them we are a source of new members and information and so on.  Most of them are branded as a member of the network, some are branded as independent offshoots with a different model.  This is I think a function of the fact that we are not yet mature in terms of where I would like to go with this approach.  I mean ultimately, I would like to have a kitchen table to enterprise solution.  However, at the point that coworkers grow to needing multiple temas, they pretty much run out of room and have to be graduated to their own space.  We have a party and everything.  But some coworkers don't want to switch to a traditional model entirely, so they rent a space with more room than they need and cowork some more. 

My own approach is to be broad in membership because that's what I like; but for example one of my coworkers is graduating soon and he wants to set up a coworking space in his new digs, but then with a theme:  he wants coworkers in the same sector or related sectors as he is in. So I guess we will be doing that next.

I think starting out a coworking space with a new idea is fun, I hav eweird ideas about fun like that. :-)

    

It's helpful to hear about membership at one location and 'as if membership' at the other locations, people have suggested that. I'm wondering for key and alarm access, how that works? (I could see having the same alarm code at each location, or different codes at each location. To start, we'll have different door key systems at each location; magnetic key fob at one, and metal key at the others.) Do you have one key and code for all locations, or are there resident members who open and close, and members at other locations can visit during those hours?

Oh heavens no.  All the locations have different door requirements and technology.  In the smallest village, population 3000 or something, the dog is likely to go get the person who needs to come and open the door for you, it's that casual.  The space where i am based has a keypad.  The logistics/shipping and warehouse spaces have the most tightly controlled access I think. And in Amsterdam, just like all over Amsterdam, you have to ring to be let in.

 

How do people at the various places dream up ideas and make them happen? Do they ever do that without going through a Community Manager or you? Do you tend to have one person at a time or groups of people who come up with ideas and make them happen? What roles/autonomy do they have, and are their roles/autonomy broadly written down?

Do you know, I don' t know?  By the time I hear about it it is usually fairly well defined.  I can't offer a service or product I don't know about so if I am offering it then they have come to me about it. The most recent examples are: a group shipping (one account to get enough volume to get better pricing and conditions); a return and pickup membership for web based retail; a shared storefront for web based retail that wants to explore the interface between online and offline retail.  Lot of innovation in retail. 

 

Right now with 2 locations I'm seeing confusion/disappointment sometimes, and joy/excitement/surprise sometimes (of all the emotions, it's mostly excitement/anticipation), that one place is physically different with different amenities than the other.

We are not a franchise but a network, so they don;t really expect the locations to be the same I think.  Or at least, I have never had anybody be surprised yet. 

 

We have an Instagram account shown on all our website pages that seems to be a main emotional connection for many people. The disappointed people want either wood and brick Loft, or white-wall Gallery, but not both, and showing the second location reduces inquiries in the first location, and showing the first location reduces expectation for the second location. 

So I could see having different Instagram accounts for each location, and show the main Instagram at the top, and the second Instagram below, and then Facebook and other more community/human things, to share, and the Membership page to share (as long as members at the third location want the same rates as the main location). Or I could see just having enough variety in the Instagram, the same way we currently have variety of photos with humans (which attract most people more) and photos without humans (which attract some other people more).

 Either I have the wrong population for that, or something.  It's outside my experience. We only have Facebook, LinkedIn (which is really huge in the NL),Twitter, and the photos on G+ so people can see what to expect in each location. 

Truth is, I only just really started on having one webpage for all the locations, and I expecty it will be nice once it is up.  But the runup surely is taking a  long time.  *sigh*     

Let me know if I made no sense or you want me to make something clear!

Cheers,

Jeannine