Ellie's Coworking + Childcare in the Economist today

[Jessie Rymph]

http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2012/10/co-working

Fantastic, positive article on my space, the concept of coworking and childcare, and the difficulties of creating a licensed childcare facility.

I wrote a week or so ago with the question of the viability of coworking and childcare. Thank you all for your thoughtful responses.

Ellie's Indiegogo campaign has 7 days left. Would you contribute $25, please?

I'm currently waiting to learn if I need earthquake retrofitting for my 80 year old building, which would be required to change the use to childcare. May mean I need to find another building all together. Sigh... can you help? www.Indiegogo.com/ellies

Thank you!

Jessie Rymph

--
Ellie's Coworking & Childcare
ElliesCoworking.com

[Nicole Russel]

This is great exposure, Jessie, awesome.

I really hope you are able to raise the money you need and don't have to change locations.  Have you talked to your community and would they stay with you in the event a move was necessary?  Are they willing to invest in Ellie's beyond a $25 cash injection?

I trully wish you all the best.

I wanted to comment on the viability string last week but Canadian Thanksgiving and life got in the way.  For those of you I haven’t met, my name is Nicole and I am trying hard to open a coworking space with childcare in Toronto called Cokid.

My roadblocks:

-          Providing a childminding service as opposed to being licensed does not meet the needs of members who have offsite responsibilities.  I have decided to go the licensed route not only to accommodate these members but also to ensure consistent revenue (anchor tenants) with children from the neighbourhood.

• As a licensed daycare I need to lease extremely specific facilities which is brutally hard in an urban area:

o    30 sq.ft. per child, 10% of floor space represented in windows, separate rooms for each age grouping, outdoor space, administration office, staff room, small kitchen, very specific washrooms, 15 sq.ft./child in storage space, parking for safe drop-off, specific zoning, etc..  (The list truly goes on). 

o    I have gotten really close to 4 properties (offer stage on 2 of them) but for one reason or another they haven’t gone through.  It’s so hard not to get emotionally vested.

• The start-up budget for a coworking space with childminding was manageable (< $150K) but this has now tripled with ministry licensing requirements.  Banks don’t like my debt ratio (neither do I) and they don’t want to take any risk.

• VCs in Canada are typically interested in tech and my financial returns aren’t going to be sexy.  In fact, with 8-12% GM over 10 years, I ask myself if the risk is worth it…

So, I given you my roadblocks but I haven’t given you my motivators:

• Quality childcare in Toronto is at a critical state.  Only 21% of families have access to licensed care and the city wants to offload public centres which means our situation is going to become A LOT worse.

• Launching and operating a business when you are trying to raise small children is both damn hard and lonely.  We are in desperate need of an infrastructure that supports people trying to do both.

9 months ago I did not know the term “coworking” and being in the daycare business would have seemed absurd.  Today these two things feel like a natural imperative.  But - can I get around the roadblocks…?

I think I'm just venting but I'd love to hear someone say that they are doing it and that it's working!  :)
-Nicole

[beanwork...@gmail.com]

Congrats on the article!  Love that we can create more awareness of creative solutions for working parents. 

I would also like to share this local blog article about Bean and its clients that has also created some awareness in Atlanta. 

http://saportareport.com/blog/2012/10/working-parents-and-bean/

Thanks for sharing on this group and good luck!

By the way, I was contacted by NPR Marketplace who is researching for a story about this business model...they would also like to interview the former owner of Cubes and Crayons/SF. Anyone know how to get in touch with her?

Thanks,

Adela

Bean Work Play Cafe

Sent from my iPad

[Jessie Rymph]

I do...
I'll contact her.
Congrats on your article, too! That looks great.
--Jessie

[Jessie Rymph]

Sent from my iPhone so please excuse typos and brevity. 

[Nicole Ford]

Hi Nicole,

Thanks very much for sharing this post.

I'm currently investigating the landscape and requirements for a coworking/ childcare space in Vancouver.

As far as I've found, you are the only other Canadian such space.  Would love to have a quick chat to hear what's happened between this last post and now.

I'm on Skype as "d1g17a", or just let me know your preferred method of contact.

Thanks in advance for any response,

N