Everything Coworking

If you are working on opening a coworking space, the single most important step you can take to ensure your success is to determine very precisely the profile of your target member. If you do that, and then make all following decisions based on that profile, then you are set up for success.

If you already operate a coworking space, your target member has been tested. This is a great time to ask yourself:

Have you attracted your target member or sort of a mish-mash of profiles? Are you happy with your membership make-up? Or is this an opportunity to clarify your target member and re-enter the market with a crystal-clear offering and messaging? Is your target member as profitable as you need them to be to make your business sustainable?

For the full show notes click here

Stew grew up near Seattle with a love of working on cars...but not outside in the driveway during rainy season....and storing all the tools was becoming an issue...so he created Stew's Self-Service Garage.

Stew’s Self Service Garage is your oasis in the middle of an auto repair desert. Fix your car yourself, save money, and Be Your Own Mechanic!

Stew shares his story, details about his business model and his plans for the future.

For the full show notes click here

This episode talks about:

• Why we should all be optimistic.
• Leading your team, members and community through uncertain times.
• Switching membership engagement from physical to virtual
• Getting ahead of the really bad days (plan like they're coming!)
• Why you should not stop marketing.

Link to show notes here.

Larry's case studies of the purpose-driven ecosystems he's helped to facilitate in Chicago, are some of the most inspiring stories I've heard yet around the significant outcomes that can be achieved by bringing the right communities of people together.

For the full show notes click here.

It's important to continue the conversation on the Coronavirus. Let's talk about:

1. What is happening in markets with higher numbers of cases?
2. What are the risks and what can we do to mitigate these risks?
3. What can we do to keep our members safe?
4. What can we do to mitigate the economic impact?

For the full blog post that corresponds with this episode, click here.

Don is an OG in the coworking world. He co-founded COCO Coworking and Fueled Collective.

He's now working on select strategic projects, one of them being the Pro platform offered by LIquidSpace.

More large employers are embracing coworking, but they don't approach their space search the same way that small businesses do.

Someone in corporate real estate may place 20 teams across the country. They need a one-stop platform to find space for all of their needs vs. working one-to-one with independent operators.

LiquidSpace Pro aggregates independent operators, giving them access to the enterprise demand and making it easy for the enterprise customers to find great, local space for their employees.

Link to show notes here.

Flip Howard ran a dry cleaning business at SMU out of an executive suite office. He thought that business looked a lot more interesting than the dry cleaning business.He sold that business to the guy that went on to create Tom's shoes!

Today Flip has over 20 locations and 70 employees, including several "lifers" to whom he credits much of the brands success. "The team is everything," Flip declared in our conversation. He shares his team structure both at the location level and centrally.

Flip also shares his experience surviving 2 recessions and a recent re-brand. He also shares his unique approach to winning in a crowded Dallas market.

For the full show notes click here.

When operators/owners hire Community Managers, they have often been running the space themselves for some time and get really anxious about replacing themselves with someone who cares as much as they do about the business.

One way to align interests is to create a bonus structure that rewards the community manager based on revenue, or memberships closed. On this episode, I consider the Community Manager role and determine what type of compensation structure aligns well with the responsibilities of the typical Community Manager. 

Link to show notes here.

Selling 5/10 Day membership passes can be dangerous to your coworking business...specifically your bottom line.

In this episode, we discuss:

- Why we are tempted to sell uber flexible memberships
- The math that makes them dangerous
- When there's a time and a place for very "light" membership options

For the full show notes click here.

Dan Zakai has been busy. He co-founded the first Mindspace location in 2014 and has grown the brand to 30 locations across multiple countries over the past 6 years.

He shares:
- His vision for the business as they opened their first location and how that's evolved
- How he thinks 2020 will play out for the coworking industry
- What it's like to operate a team across multiple countries
- How Europe and the U.S. coworking markets are different
- How they are leveraging management agreements to continue their profitable growth
- And more...

View the full show notes here