Everything Coworking

Trina-K is the Community Manager for ECOMSPACES in Atlanta, GA. She's also a confidence coach, SOP writer, video shoot scheduler, project manager, and more for ECOM members. If you're interested in hearing an out of the box take on the coworking Community Manager role, this episode is for you.

Looking for the show notes for this episode?  www.everythingcoworking.com/episodes/185

There was a discussion in the Everything Coworking Facebook Group recently about whether to use "coworking" or "flexible office" as a tagline for a new space under development.

There was a lot of emotional support from the group members to "go with your gut." Bad advice. Go with Google. Using the right organic search terms matter a lot to help your ideal members find you. Use the term they know and they're searching for.

This epsiode talks about the emotional and the data driven aspects to making this decision.

Link to show notes here!

If you’re curious about what a successful community manager profile looks like, how they contribute to the business and how they manage their time, keep the ear buds in, this episode is for you!

Kelsey Sizemore is the Community Manager & Marketing Manager for Forge Birmingham, AL. At the time of this recording, she’s been in the role for three years and has helped the team expand from 7,000 square feet into 13,000 square feet, start a podcast, optimize their marketing mix and more!

Link to show notes here!

Kim Lee didn't take 2020 lying down. She celebrated the addition of new event space the week before the first lockdown. Without missing a beat, she co-founded the Birmingham Coworking Collective, and then launched a podcast.

Kim shares her three-year coworking journey to create a community in which Birmingham's entrepreneurs can thrive. She shares some behind the scenes of her business, including how she balances her business, three kids, two dogs and a husband... how her team is structured, what hats they each wear, and more.

Link to show notes here!

Focusing on what drives your coworking business will be critical in 2021 to set yourself up for office re-entry. What we measure gets focus, what we focus on improves.

KPIs can help you to get objective data on what’s working and what’s not...but they can also keep you focused and disciplined while you’re working on projects that don’t reap immediate financial rewards.

In this episode, we walk through what KPIs are, what to track, and how to set yourself up for success in your measuring and tracking process.

Link to show notes here!

Demand for virtual offices is growing. Building up a competency around marketing and servicing virtual office memberships can add margin to your business and help you to serve a member that doesn’t require much access to physical space. There are operators that build their virtual office business to the point where it pays their rent.

In this episode we discuss three ways to build your virtual office program.

1. What is virtual office?

2. Should a virtual office program include use of our GMB Listing?

3. Three ways to grow your virtual office business:

- Run Google Ads

- Focus on SEO/organic traffic using keyword optimization

- List your offerings with lead-gen partners

Link to show notes here!

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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:

The “jam study”

In this episode we discuss three pricing strategies for tough times:

1. Consider offering more flexibility on your memberships than you typically would, but don’t overwhelm your potential members with too many options. Want evidence? Read the “jam study” here: https://hbr.org/2006/06/more-isnt-always-better

2. Try to avoid offering rock bottom pricing

• You can’t lure people out of their homes with deals. They either can leave the house and want to leave the house or they don’t. When they evaluate options, they want the best environment FOR THEM that they can get out of the home. Focus on consultative selling vs. price. WHY are they leaving the house? How can what you offer provide the transformation they are looking for?
  • A better network
  • A better office environment than they have at home
  • A more productive day
  • Work friends
  • A place to record in silence

3. Don't get into a price war with the local competition. Know your strengths and know their weaknesses. If they’re doing ridiculous deals, they may be locked into very long, inflexible agreements. They may be paying for coffee and meeting rooms. Know how to make the apples to apples comparison, but even then, you might lose on price and need to sell on other strengths such as hospitality and community.

Give all deals/COVID accommodations an end date. Frame them as a COVID discount and make them good for 3 months (you can always extend if you need to). 

Link to show notes here!

Trevor Hightower started his own coworking brand in the lobby of a multi-family apartment building. He learned a lot about what worked and didn't work in that model and eventually met and joined forces with the founder of Craftwork.

Craftwork enhanced the revenue model and mojo of a coworking space by combining it with an open-to-the public coffee shop. Coffee in the front, coworking in the back.

Craftwork started experimenting on partnering with developers of multi-family apartment buildings to build a Craftwork location into the amenity set. The buildout was paid for, but they still signed a lease.

COVID struck....all coffee shops closed down. The leasing model showed its weaknesses.

Trevor shares his story about how COVID accelerated their pursuit of a stronger model for their business - hospitality as a service...what that looks like and where they're headed.

Link to show notes here!

Are you excited about the huge potential demand for coworking space coming from the "Work from Home" segment?

They are not the same nut to crack as our typical coworking space member.

Let's discuss:

- How the WFH segment is different than our traditional coworking segments, who pays for their memberships, safety and security expectations.

- How they are not solution-aware and require a different marketing approach than our active searchers.

- Which advertising platforms align with different awareness stages.

- Some tactics to use on the solution-unaware segment to get them into the top of our sales funnel.

Link to show notes here!

If you’re curious about what a successful community manager profile looks like, how they contribute to the business and how they manage their time, keep the ear buds in, this episode is for you!

Alex Biddle is the Community Manager for La Suprema Works & Events in Tucson, Arizona. At the time of this recording, she’s been in the role for about a year and during that time, helped the team launch their flagship location during a global pandemic.

Link to show notes here!