Hello everyone! So glad to find a community to share ideas and learn best practices! I've started the planning phase to explore the feasibility of opening a location in my hometown. Currently, we have 3 others in surrounding towns, but none in my town. We are an up and coming town with a brand new mall, and being in Florida, not many options for professionals looking for this type of environment.
I've met with our local Business Alliance, and the Dean of our our local business school. Both will be key in the adoption and growth. Thanks to everyone here, my next step is to start building a community of people before signing a lease.
Here's my thought (and challenge): as most of you know, this isn't an easy balance for determining how to even break even. I'm also all for starting small. The best locations i'm finding that would work financially (assuming a group of 10 to start) are in the 1200-1600 SF range. Being in such a small location, I wanted to know if anyone has tried this? And if you have, what about the thought of making sure the initial 10 are all in different verticals?
I'm trying to target the young professionals who have an idea, but not throw them into the typical incubator/accelerator. If we can provide the "core" team as part of the founding group, (think WebDev, Marketing, Tech, Startup Coach, IP Lawyer), my thought is this would work better in the small environment.
I thank you all in advance, and am also planning on taking some road (possibly air) trips to check out some of my new friends!
Best,
Keith