3 Reasons to Start Your Own Co-Working Space
Steve Poland
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "CDMoyer" <cdm...@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 29, 2010 10:20 AM
Subject: 3 Reasons to Start Your Own Co-Working Space
To: <geek-brai...@googlegroups.com>
This popped up in my feed reader, thought it was amusing.
Sent to you by CDMoyer via Google Reader: 3 Reasons to Start Your Own
Co-Working Space via The Netsetter by Thursday Bram on 9/29/10
Co-working has become a popular way to find office space without having
to pay for a full office, especially when you’re the only one using it.
Any space with a couple of desks and wireless access can become a
co-working space — all you need are a few other people who need room to
work and are willing to pay for the privilege.
But co-working spaces aren’t universal: while many major cities now
have them, it doesn’t mean that every city does. And, even in those
cities where co-working spaces are already established, it’s easy to
come to the conclusion that they’re too far away — one of the benefits
of working for yourself is avoiding the commute and if commuting is
necessary to get to a co-working location, it can be impractical.
Starting your own co-working space can be the easy solution, for
several reasons:
Money
Depending on your finances, a co-working space can be a good financial
decision. While many co-working spaces can be started as a collective
effort, starting one on your own is typically a matter of a little
startup capital. It’s a matter of renting a space, adding office
furniture and utilities and getting insurance. The costs can vary
depending on where you’re located, of course.
But the pay off can be useful. You can set the prices on using your
co-working space to cover the costs of operating the space, allowing
you to use it at no personal cost. Free office space can be enough to
make your efforts worthwhile, but if your goal is to earn an income
from your co-working space, it’s not out of the question. Depending on
the space and tools you can place at your co-workers’ disposal, you can
charge more than your costs. You may also have opportunities to host
events or otherwise share your space that would bring in additional
income. You may also be able to set things up so that you turn a profit
with relatively little work, compared to many other projects — as long
as you collect regular fees from your co-workers and pay your bills,
there isn’t much else that needs to happen.
Access
Operating the local co-working space offers some definite benefits if
you’re trying to get more involved in the community. Provided you do
some marketing to the community, you can easily get involved in a lot
of local events — even hosting them — which can provide the networking
opportunities necessary to move along your main business. While having
your own network in place certainly helps make the process of setting
up a co-working space easier, once the ball is rolling, your co-working
space can expand your network.
It doesn’t have to be a coldly calculated move meant to get access to
the cool kids in your community. A co-working space provides a benefit
to locals and, by extension, that means you’re doing something good for
your co-workers.
Diversification
Lastly, a coworking center means that not all of your eggs are in one
basket, as far as your business efforts go. It’s a relatively simple
business to set up — you’ll need to do some marketing to make sure that
people keep coming in, but that’s about it.
That means that, while you’re working on other projects, you’ve still
got something humming along in the background. It may not be a source
of a lot of money, but it can make the difference in many situations.
On top of that, it can open up opportunities if you find that your
original plans don’t wind up the way you expected. That sort of
flexibility is invaluable.
Things you can do from here:
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Brian Fending
So back to this region, nobody so far has offered that they have the time to be the "facilitator" referenced above. I certainly don't have time to do it solo. I followed up w Anthony from LISC to no reply, after deferring to the LISC effort to collect letter of intent this Fall and get a coworking space going in early 2011. I've found other means for my then-immediate needs.
Assuming that does in fact go nowhere, let's revisit my original position: I need a partner or two to do this in Buffalo in order to spread the risk.
Dan Magnuszewski
I'll be interested as soon as I get fired or my stock options are fully vested.
-Dan
Kevin Purdy
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Kevin Purdy
Freelance writer/editor
http://completeandroidguide.com
Clark Dever
back in early october from All-You-Can-Jet.
Clark Dever
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Twitter: @clarkdever
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