"Corporate Memberships"

[Kelly Fitzgerald]

Hi All-

I launched Society of Work (SOW) in Chattanooga, TN in September of 2013.  We've been pleased with our growth and have a lot in store for 2014!  One of the things we are working on is partnering with local companies on memberships.  More definitively, we have several incubators/venture capital groups who are out growing their space (who also happen to be in close proximity to us).  We are talking with these groups about a type "corporate" membership (for lack of a better name at this point) where anyone from the incubator or company can work at SOW.  They are able to give their employees a flexible way to work and contribute to SOW and we are hoping to learn from their businesses as well.  We see it as a win-win.  

However, I am sort of stumped when it comes to a pricing model.  There are also some larger corporations who have expressed interest in order to give their employees flexibility and freedom from their standard cubicle farms.  I have thought through a couple of ideas, but I don't think I have come up with the right answer yet.  Has anyone put together a pricing model for something like this?  I have looked at several models, but I don't see anything comparable- but maybe it's just not listed on people's website?

Any suggestions or recommendations would be helpful.

Kelly

[Jerome Chang]

Hi. @BLANKSPACES, we see a shared, corporate account the same as an individual, especially since our reservation system allows "sharing" to be tracked. Our only consideration is how many rentable/"reserveable" areas they want to use. Therefore, if a few people share a desk, then pricing is just simply 1 desk, or 1 office, or whatever.

JEROME CHANG

Mid-Wilshire
5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) | Los Angeles CA 90036 
ph: (323) 330-9505

Downtown
529 S. Broadway, Suite 4000 (@Pershing Square) | Los Angeles CA 90013 
ph: (213) 550-2235 

--
Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to coworking+...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

[Kelly Fitzgerald]

Thanks, Jerome.  I am in talks with some companies to pay by usage/number of members as of right now.  So, if they think 8-10 people per month will use the space, we work with them on pricing based on how that translates to our membership options.  Our membership options are really simple right now.  For instance we have a 8/3 package that allows people to work for any three days a week for $165 per month (which probably looks ridiculously cheap to you!)  I took the number 8 for this particular client and multiplied it by 8, but gave them a corporate discount in order to help incentivize them.  We only have 1 reservable space at this point, so everybody is pretty much on the same playing field there.  Is that clear? Make sense? Thoughts/Feedback?

Kelly

[Jerome Chang]

Sounds like you're trying to sell 8 memberships to them at a discount. That's a lot higher price point if they intended to just get one shared membership - great for you if you can sell it.

JEROME CHANG

Mid-Wilshire
5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) | Los Angeles CA 90036 
ph: (323) 330-9505

Downtown
529 S. Broadway, Suite 4000 (@Pershing Square) | Los Angeles CA 90013 
ph: (213) 550-2235 

[Alex Linsker]

At Collective Agency in Portland Oregon, not offering discounts/subsidies/exceptions/financial incentives to big companies makes big companies and small companies more likely to rent (for memberships or meetings). See "Veblen good" on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good. Also see perception of stability from offering higher or lower rates.

Collective Agency clients have included Walmart Labs, Mozilla, EngineYard, Nike, Intel, and many many more. Half our clients and revenue are proprietors/self-employed and half are businesses of various sizes.

Raising rates has led to increase in members and meetings; lowering rates led to decrease.

Side note:
I think of some coworking as providing a place for interactions similar to a small town or city. There is research comparing 844 counties and districts across the U.S.: that local governments providing grants or loans to businesses (mostly to big corporations) expect more economic growth (in $) but actually have economic loss (in $) compared with places that don't discount.

As you can see in Table 3 "Incentivizing Economic Development: An Empirical Examination of the Use of Grants and Loans": http://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1061&context=scjilb  governments that made neither grants nor loans had 74% growth and 10% decline, better than governments that made grants & loans for 69% growth and 19% decline.

Studies http://m.theatlanticcities.com/jobs-and-economy/2012/12/uselessness-economic-development-incentives/4081/ show governments providing subsidies expect new jobs (members working)but for every 10 new jobs expected to be hired from subsidies there is 0 jobs total hired and net 6 jobs fired.

If you'd like to support or learn more about the Oregon constitutional amendment I'm leading: https://taxandconversation.com

-- 
Alex Linsker
Collective Agency's Community Organizer / Proprietor
     (503) 517-6900 http://collectiveagency.co
Tax and Conversation's Statewide Community Organizer
      (503) 517-6904 taxandconversation.com
(503) 369-9174 mobile   (503) 517-6901 fax
322 NW Sixth Ave, Suite 200, Portland, Oregon 97209

[Gretchen Bilbro]

HI Kelly,

 We just opened up in Murfreesboro, TN which isn't too terribly far from you guys in Chattanooga. I am working on this same issue here. How did you end up pricing for this? Did it work well were there changes made after some time? Thanks

Gretchen

[wa...@renewacycle.com]

Hello;

I'm in the pre-launch phase and think this could be a good way for us to diversify our membership ecosystem, provide a service to employees and employers, and bring people that drive through our town on their regular commute into our town. So, part of the pricing model is defining the value to the stakeholders.

What's the loaded cost for an office space for an employee? Does offering flexible workspace benefit the employer in terms of employee retention, exposure to new ways of thinking, and opening up space in their existing facility?

In our case, we're a small town of only ~5,000 people, BUT we're on the main N-S commuter route with heavy traffic in the AM and PM. We think there's value in offering another space to people to save them time and help them do the things they want to do instead of driving. Oh! and I've been doing some math on the cost of commuting and it's insane, hundreds of dollars/mo in Operating costs and TIME. 

There will be an educational component to this, clearly. One of our competitors is inertia and habit. Coworking is new for many people, so they don't even know they need it yet. ;-) 

[j...@meshworkapp.com]

I think that offering flexible workspace definetly benefits employees, we are seeing more and more articles on the topic especially in terms of health and happiness. Plus a shortened commute time and monetary savings will increase employee happiness and therefore reduce turnover (one of the biggest costs to employers). 

https://www.fastcompany.com/3064755/work-smart/study-finds-work-life-balance-could-be-a-matter-of-life-and-death

I would even suggest reaching out to come of these companies that have higher commuter populations and sending them education about coworking and its benefits! 

Best of luck! 

[ch...@thecoworkconsultant.com]

I think the #1 question is...how important is the community to you vs. selling space?

At our "small" town coworks we limit the # of employees that one single company can have in our space to 3 (unless they are as committed to coworking as we are). The issue is that well established companies have their own culture (or they should)...are you ok with their culture potentially having an influence on yours?

If you have a membership base already ask them how they will feel if you bring corporate entities in? Do they think it will disrupt the trust and culture? Could be detrimental...

Lots to consider but ASK your people about it..they are your #1 asset, right?:)

Good stuff and thanks for posting!
Chris

[ch...@thecoworkconsultant.com]

[wayne]

Jen:

 

I'm going down this path. Will you be at the GCUC in 2 weeks?

 

Kindly,
Wayne Maceyka
 HinesburgHUB - Coworking+
 Blog - (un)Sustainable Comments
 Connect with LinkedIn
 Sustainable MBA
Mobile: 802-585-0909

--

Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com ---

You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/coworking/FVfjofnw5X8/unsubscribe. To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to coworking+...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Katherine Warman Kern]

We have a member and non-member rate for meeting rooms. Non-members are usually Corporations. The non-member rate is a significant premium and is a minimum of a half day.

Pricing is hard. Especially for entrepreneurs. If our member entrepreneurs don't research pricing and charge what they are worth, they won't survive to pay member fees. So set a good example.

Do the research. Call hotels, conference centers, etc and find out what they charge a day.

Find me at GCUC if you want to talk more about this.

Katherine Kern
CO-Founder
COMRADITY
203-883-9255

[Kelly Fitzgerald]

Hi All-

Just revisiting this post as a lot has changed since my initial post. We have found that corporations are definitely interested in the idea of providing flexible options for their employees (for both recruiting and retaining employees). We've had Unum (a large insurance company) join in the past year for one of their departments as a sort of R+D project. Basically, they want to be more in the know about mid-level developers. After having worked in the space for 3 months or so, they've had a couple of different conversations with freelancers that they wouldn't have met otherwise. This also shows their ability as a company to relate and let people know you don't have to work in a cubicle filled office to be a part of their team. 

That said, this idea of Unum joining came after they hired one of previous members who went to work there and proposed the idea because he was so energized by our community. I would say that if you can build relationships within a company, that's going to be your best asset. That employee can sell the product better than you can in most cases.

Kelly

[Alex Hillman]

I would say that if you can build relationships within a company, that's going to be your best asset. That employee can sell the product better than you can in most cases.

Amen to this! Awesome story, Kelly :) thank you for coming back and sharing this.  

------------------

The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.

Better Coworkers: http://indyhall.org

Weekly Coworking Tips: http://coworkingweekly.com

My Audiobook: https://theindyhallway.com/ten

--

Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group.

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to coworking+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.