Business Survey for Space Owners

[Kelly Brown]

As I'm working on our business plan, I'm wanting to flesh out some
information re: financial expectations.

I was hoping some space owners would be willing to share some
information. I've seen some other surveys on this board but didn't
see anything dealing with the business side of the process.

I'll enter any respondents into a drawing for $100.
Your answers will be anonymous -- I won't be correlating contact info
for the drawing with survey responses.

I'll also share aggregate results of the survey on this board.

Thanks in advance for your help / feedback.

The survey is here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=zDOIAyDxI9lkF01V9N5CUw_3d_3d

-kb
Kelly Brown
Office Space Co-Working
www.officespacecoworking.com


P.S. I don't think there's anything too intrusive in the questions --
but if there's any question in particular you don't feel like
answering, feel free to just skip it.

[Kyle Chowning]

Kelly...are you willing to share those results?
Kyle

[Tara Hunt]

Just took the survey, but some of the questions were lacking the 'other' or an explanation. Most spaces are pretty unique in the way they operate.

Oh...and the formula I gave to Tony B was:

Break even model: (Cost of space x 1.5 = total cost of space) / (number of square feet / 100 = number of desks) = Cost per desk

Profitable model: (Cost of space x 3 = cost of space and then some) / (number of square feet / 100 = number of desks) = Cost per desk

Of course, there is wiggle room there to make more money on services, drop ins, conference room rental, event space rental, part time keyholders and other varying levels of membership.

Tara

--
tara 'miss rogue' hunt
coFounder
Citizen Agency (www.citizenagency.com)
blog: www.horsepigcow.com
phone: 415-694-1951
fax: 415-727-5335

[Kelly Brown]

Kyle to confirm -- I'm DEFINITELY sharing results both on this board
and our site.

We have 9 respondents so far -- (thank you!) -- which may not be
'statistically significant'....but it's already providing clarity on a
couple points, which were real head scratchers for me...its proving
extremely helpful.

I would post out some of that info now -- but don't want to influence
anyone who still may want to vote.

I'll wrap up the survey next week and be sure to post it here by next
Friday.

[Kelly Brown]

Tara,
Thank you so much for the feedback.
I modified the survey a bit to allow for comments as you
suggest....although the survey only allows one entry per person at
this point. But hopefully that will allow more flexibility for others
to respond.

The financial model you show below is awesome.
In fact it's a little freaky as how i read it it's exactly the square
footage i was estimating per person....100 sq ft.
At least for a 35-50 person facility -- meaning you'd need 3500-5000
square feet for that sized office.

I figured roughly 40 sq for the desk area and the 60 sq was for common
areas.

That supports what i read in cube space's biz plan -- 13,000 sqr. for
a 134 desk facility. So the math must hold.

Just that revelation alone -- it's a huge relief. Now I
(confidently) know what i'm looking for in facility size as we scope
out our location.

-kb

[Kyle Chowning]

Thanks Kelly. And thank you Tara. Those ratio's are fantastic to
have.

I wish all business started like this. It would be so much easier to
be able to make things work and be realistic about it.
Kyle

[Jacob Sayles]

Kelly,

Office Nomads has 5000 sqft and we are shooting for 40 anchor desks
with plenty of room for drop-ins. We have 3 conference rooms and an
open area we call The Cafe. So 100sqft/person is about right by my
estimation.

Jacob

--
Jacob Sayles
Co-founder & Janitor
http://officenomads.com

[ATusler]

Tara, thanks! Those ratios pretty much match what we've been finding.
I used 100 sq ft/desk when planning, but the shape of our space is
making it hard to reach that number. Right, now we're at 160 sq ft/
desk and think we can get to 130/desk. We're paying $1.00/ft so we
don't have to jam as many in as we would if the cost were higher.

Kelly, I didn't see a question about whether the space is break even
or profit--maybe I missed it, I'm not completely caffienated yet. But,
the data could skew pretty strongly.

Anthony

[davidmoffitt]

Tara -

those numbers are spot on!
-dm

[Kelly Brown]

Special thanks to everyone who responded!
We've closed the survey and have contacted the winner of the $100
drawing. I'd put their name here - but wanted to get their
confirmation / approval first.

Anywhoo - you can review survey responses here;
http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=fcpka3_2bZqx0nga2bDM15dWwBhygZEluvmwsObwToulI_3d

Granted we only have 11 responses -- so it's not scientific -- but
considering there are only 30-60 coworking facilities out there, i
figure that's pretty darn good.
Either way, my feeling towards surveys has always been get enough
informed people responding and you get the general questions you need
answered....which we definitely did.

In particular, it was extremely valuable to have others weigh in
through their private emails to me and posts to this group.
That info is unquantifiable --- but it's safe to say at this point we
have enough confidence to say we're definitely moving forward with a
coworking facility in Northeast Ohio.

Kelly Brown
Office Space Coworking
www.officespacecoworking.com

On Apr 21, 10:17 pm, Kelly Brown <kelabr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> As I'm working on our business plan, I'm wanting to flesh out some
> information re: financial expectations.
>
> I was hoping some space owners would be willing to share some
> information. I've seen some other surveys on this board but didn't
> see anything dealing with the business side of the process.
>
> I'll enter any respondents into a drawing for $100.
> Your answers will be anonymous -- I won't be correlating contact info
> for the drawing withsurveyresponses.
>

> I'll also share aggregate results of thesurveyon this board.

>
> Thanks in advance for your help / feedback.
>

> Thesurveyis here:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=zDOIAyDxI9lkF01V9N5CUw_3d_3d

[ruyoung]

kelly - thanks for sharing the results of your survey. that will be
very helpful for those of us trying to set up our own.

would you be able to also post the responses to "other" for questions
6 and 8? (if they specified)
r.

On May 3, 12:09 pm, Kelly Brown <kelabr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Special thanks to everyone who responded!
> We've closed the survey and have contacted the winner of the $100
> drawing. I'd put their name here - but wanted to get their
> confirmation / approval first.
>

> Anywhoo - you can review survey responses here;http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=fcpka3_2bZqx0nga2bDM15dWwBhygZ...