Everything Coworking

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Everything Coworking Featured Resources:

The SEO Action Guide

The Everything Coworking Academy

Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space

Community Manager University

Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective

Pre-pandemic, we tried to avoid 10-day passes and custom plans. We wanted full time memberships and operational simplicity. Well…today’s coworking space user has changed our tune. 

In this episode, we talk about:

- Looking at the 10 day pass as a “healthy” option for end users that needs to be sold in volume

- Designing access packages for teams - how to give them the access they need and getting the recurring revenue and predictability that your business needs.

- Testing meeting room access plans that build loyalty and recurring revenue

- Leveraging meeting room demand

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Everything Coworking Featured Resources:

The SEO Action Guide

Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space

Community Manager University

Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective

Jason Anderson is the President of the World’s Largest Coworking Franchise, which today includes the brands Venture X and Office Evolution.

Check out the NEW Flex Uncensored Podcast with my co-host Giovanni Palavacini! 

If that link doesn’t work, just search for it in your podcast player and hit that subscribe button!

Jason Anderson started his career in the Air Force when he was 17. His first deployment was to the UK where he was stationed over 9/11. Before that assignment, Jason had never left the country. Jason didn’t know at the time that some years later, he’d return to London to celebrate the expansion of a Venture X franchisee….one location that is part of a global footprint of the third largest coworking company in the world.

Jason had a vision (literally on a board) of creating the “Bonvoy” of coworking brands. He’s just getting started.

In this episode, he shares the “why” behind the Venture X acquisition of Office Evolution.

He talks through the way he looks at the flex industry through a hospitality lens.

We learn why it’s natural for VentureX to operate globally early in its life as a brand.

We also get some behind-the-scenes details on how the Venture X model has evolved over time and what Jason’s predictions are for the next 5 years.

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Everything Coworking Featured Resources:

The SEO Action Guide

Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space

Community Manager University

Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective

Resources Mentioned in this Podcast:

Lindsay on LinkedIn

Lamb’s website

Lindsay Hedenskog joined the Coworking Startup School in June of 2020 and officially opened on May 3, 2021. Lindsay is the CEO and co-founder of Lamb, a coworking space (but more) in Stockholm, Sweden.

Lamb’s big hairy goal is to help people make it normal to work and manage people with intention, empathy. Lamb is developing and providing the tools to create sustainable work cultures…inside of coworking spaces and out.

Lindsay and I talk about

- How she’s found a successful model that offers no dedicated workspaces

- How she is approaching marketing for a space that is kind of coworking but also much more

- Her team - which includes an event manager and a B2B sales manager and a head of marketing

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Everything Coworking Featured Resources:

The SEO Action Guide

Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space

Community Manager University

Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective

Resources Mentioned in this Podcast:

Ann Long on LinkedIn

Burbity Workplaces

Liberty Lake Coworking 

Ann Long, founder of Burbity Workspaces, opened her coworking space in 2020. Since then, not only did she survive COVID, but she has expanded into two new locations through a management agreement and a marketing agreement with her landlord and is working on another partnership for a coworking + cowarehousing location.

In this episode, we talk about:

- Ann shares her evolution from a 4,000 square foot leased space to the deal she’s currently working on which is 28,000 square feet of coworking + 12,000 feet of co-warehousing.

- She shares the creative business models she’s using to expand.

- She also shares what roles are on her team and how she’s expanding her team to support her growth.

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Everything Coworking Featured Resources:

The SEO Action Guide

Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space

Community Manager University

Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective

Resources Mentioned in this Podcast:

Your Desk

Carl Sullivan on LinkedIn

Carl Sullivan’s coworking brand, Your Desk, is about to turn 11 years old (at the time of this recording). Carl was 24 when he started Your Desk. He was a builder and a house flipper who picked up on an office sharing trend that he saw happening at creative agencies and architecture firms. WeWork had just started its first location in Brooklyn when Carl opened Your Desk outside of Sydney, Australia.

Carl’s first location was 26 flex desks….today his model is 70% private space, 30% common space and he’s about to convert some team suites to one person offices.

After surviving COVID in an urban CBD, Carl and his team (which happens to consist of his talented interior designer mom and former house flipper dad), are ready to take more space in their building, continue to tweak their model, and work on optimizing their sales funnel.

In this episode, we talk about:

- Carl’s coworking story - how he got into it.

- Who Your Desk serves and how that has evolved over time, esp. Post-COVID? (i.e., freelancers, small businesses, corporate employees)

- The Your Desk portfolio and how that has changed over the 11 years 

- What his family-run team looks like

- How Your Desk funded expansions

- Your Desk’s biggest source of membership leads

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Everything Coworking Featured Resources:

The SEO Action Guide

Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space

Community Manager University

Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective

The Everything Coworking Newsletter - Subscribe here.

I've heard a number of coworking operators recently say that they simply don’t rely on open plan memberships (hot desks) to run a profitable business. They don’t worry about members that leave without notice. They don’t mind offering part-time memberships. They don’t sweat the small stuff. If you aren’t open yet, and you’re working on designing your coworking business, consider that approach. You’ll sleep better at night :)

For those of you that can’t turn a (healthy) profit  in your coworking business without selling your hot desks and dedicated desks, hosting meeting rooms and selling event space, here’s what I think is going on in the market.

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Everything Coworking Featured Resources:

The SEO Action Guide

Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space

Community Manager University

Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective

Resources Mentioned in this Podcast:

Paul Stanton on LinkedIn

Proptechbankers

Paul Stanton  Head of Strategy for Equiem, Managing Principal for Workplace Hospitality Management, Co-founder of Building Social, and an Asset Manager for  Alliance Partners HSP, LLC (“Alliance”), a private real estate investment and operating company.

Paul Stanton’s very first job was in real estate brokerage. That was not for him. So he got a law degree, went into asset management, started a tenant engagement platform for landlords called Building Social, then was a founding partner at WHM (Workplace Hospitality Management) which set out to help coworking brands achieve accelerated, capital-light scale and building owners create premium real estate asset value through creative partnerships…and now he’s head of strategy for Equiem.

In this episode, we talk about:

- Flex and proptech themes that Paul sees in the marketplace today

- What he’s most excited about today.

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Everything Coworking Featured Resources:

The SEO Action Guide

Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space

Community Manager University

Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective

Examples mentioned in the podcast:

Launch Workplaces

Mike Kriel on LinkedIn

Management agreements are really attractive to coworking spaces, and with good reason. Mike Kriel, CEO of Launch Workplaces with locations in DC, Maryland, and Cleveland, shares his perspective on what’s new in management agreements in 2022.

Mike was last on the podcast in October 2019. Some things have not changed since then…and a lot of things have. 

Mike does only management agreements and has done a lot of the. He comes from a deep commercial real estate background. He’s taken over some locations that were going to close in 2020 and has recently expanded from the Maryland/DC area to Ohio. 

In this episode, Mike and I talk about

What’s not new in management agreements:

- Don’t do a deal just to do a deal – there are still consequences

- Partners matter

- Who does what (and who doesn’t do what)

- Who makes what / when

- How do we break up?

What is new?

  1 – Buzzword

           2 -  Acceptance

           3 – How to be a good partner (this is not a lease)

           4 – You always remember your first (doing your first     management agreement)

           5 – New noise in between (consultants/brokers/etc.)

Follow Us on YouTube

Everything Coworking Featured Resources:

The SEO Action Guide

Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space

Community Manager University

Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective

Examples mentioned in the podcast:

Jennifer Thoemke on LinkedIn

Connects Workspace

Proximity Coworking Space Management Software

Jen Thoemke Chief Connector and Creator opened Connects Workspace 7 years ago with a strong hunch that the small town of Golden, CO (population 20,000), needed a flexible, professional workspace focused on connecting business owners and remote workers and giving them a great place to be productive.

Her hunch was right…she has expanded her location twice since opening, bought the cafe adjacent to the coworking space, and is now building a combo coworking space and food hall about 20 minutes away from her first location.

In this episode, we talk about:

- Jen’s coworking story - how she got started and where she is today.

- Jen’s real estate story - from rent to own.

- Her advice on running a full cafe AND a coworking business

- Her marketing approach in a town of 20,000

- What she has learned from her first 7 years of business that you’re transferring to your new location?

- What the Connects Workspace team looks like

- What space management platform Connects Workspace uses

- Jen’s favorite tech/tool that you use for your coworking business?

Follow Us on YouTube

Everything Coworking Featured Resources:

The SEO Action Guide

Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space

Community Manager University

Creative Coworking Partnerships: How to negotiate and structure management agreements from the landlord and operator perspective

Examples mentioned in the podcast:

P3 Physical Therapy

Ampersand Studios in Miami Beach - Space for Creators

Blue House Wellness in Atlanta

Residence Coworking (not a niche space but fantastic copywriting)

What drives success for a niche coworking space

- You can design the space exactly for your ideal member

- You can message about the space exactly for your ideal member

- You can stand out in a market that has a strong supply of “generic” coworking

Make sure…

- You don’t want to be niche, but speak generically to avoid turning away leads