Instead of trying to cater to everyone, narrow down your audience and make sure you understand your target market. Did you know that the first coworking space, founded in Berlin in 1995, was a space for hackers? While coworking spaces have come a long way since 1995, the guiding principle remains unchanged: collaboration and a sense of community. Over the past 25 years, we've also seen significant changes in the way people work. An increasing number of professionals are abandoning traditional forms of employment in favor of independent and contract work.
Once you determine your business model, you'll need to figure out what your needs are. Kia uses the Services and Essentials framework to help you organize your needs. Do your research and make sure you're in demand for a co-working space. Do not assume that if you build it, they will come, since the idea of working together is new to many people, and a few will have to be convinced to take advantage of its benefits.
Consider organizing some events to measure and arouse interest. Create a group on MeetUp or Facebook and invite as many colleagues and friends as you want to join. This is why gigantic organizations and corporate giants prefer coworking spaces for a more feasible and collaborative office culture. The mobile workforce has adopted coworking spaces because, in addition to offering affordable office space and all the necessary amenities, they offer a community where like-minded people can come together to create, share resources and establish contacts, while still growing their own businesses.
A coworking space for startups may require more availability of meeting rooms, while a space for independent entrepreneurs would benefit more from having private offices. Consider talking to city officials to see if there are spaces available that can be transformed into a coworking office. We spoke to the founder of Optix and former coworking space operator, Kia Rahmani, about the best way to design a coworking space. If your office or workplace has unused areas, set up a coworking office within your company might be a good idea.
If your space is large enough, renting private offices within your coworking space is a good idea if you want to maximize your income. Another way to make your coworking space more economically viable is to attract corporate clients who need meeting spaces for their remote teams. If people need an environment similar to that of the daily office, opening a coworking space doesn't make sense. If you have a company with unused office space, creating a coworking space can offset some (or all) of your overhead office maintenance and configuration expenses.
Organizing events in your coworking space provides you with an income stream and, at the same time, gives you another way to bring your coworking space to the public light.
