Know Your Community before you open your doors:
For Gavin Eddy, founder of Old Church School, located in Somerset, England, knowing your community is also one of the key elements to running a successful coworking space. While the coworking philosophy is quite welcoming, Eddy stresses the need for a space to really create a sense of community where members feel that their specific needs will be met.
After relocating to Somerset from London, Eddy found a way to translate his experiences from life in the big city into something valuable within a smaller community. “Almost all of the coworking spaces are in bigger cities, so one of the major challenges is scaling the space down to fit the needs of the regional community that you are in,” explained Eddy.
Going from big to small is deceptively easy. One cannot simply take a coworking space from London, set it in Somerset and expect the same results. Eddy was sure to note the main changes in demographic and also the needs of his coworkers. “It is quite different in a large city, where most coworkers are maybe between their early to mid 20s. But here [in Somerset] we see that ours are a bit older, and our people may have already had a full career and as a result the expectations are completely different.”
Old Church Space is know for being very involved in the community, not just for coworkers, but also by reaching out to the people of Somerset by hosting events that go beyond the greater business community. Eddy attributes much of their success to the fact that he really knew the ins and outs of the community when opening the space. “I would say understand your market---who your is customer and then give them what they want. Coworking isn’t necessarily just a big open thing where anyone can automatically fit. And since we personally are in a smaller place, we cater to more specific demands.” As a result Old Church Space was able to make money right from the start. Eddy warns that the spaces that fail typically don’t know what their demands are from the beginning.
If you are new to a place or just exploring the idea of opening a space, Feinberg also suggests building a network before you invest in anything. “I would say the best thing to do is build a community, because we had one before we opened and that really helps. For example, start a Jelly first and then when you get your space started you will have a rough estimate of how many paying members you will have when you open.”
How to make it last…
So if you’ve got the cash, the style, and the space that’s great! But if you want to stick around it is vital to create an environment where your coworkers will have positive experiences and that is the biggest challenge.
As awareness of the coworking community continues to grow, the demands of coworkers are becoming more specific and understood. While Old Church Space and Greenspaces are at the stage where they are financially secure and know the ins and outs of the coworking world, they still realize the importance of putting love and care into their respective spaces.
“Opening a space just to make money is generally a bad idea, since it’s a very intensive process. It’s a lot of work; you have to really want it. It’s much more than just a landlord and tenant situation, and ours isn’t like that at all, we are very present and involved,” added Rebecca Krzyzosiak, the head girl at Old Church School. She continued by saying that the coworkers at Old Church School know “that we love what we do and it is incredibly important to love what you do when it comes to a coworking space.”
Feinberg echoes Eddy’s and Krzyzosiak’s sentiments as well reminding us that while the coworking community can be light and fun, owners of coworking spaces have a lot of responsibility to meet those expectations of their coworkers and provide a challenging work environment that allows them to grow and feel empowered more than they already did before.
