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I opened a co-working space in Seattle [1] last year and closed it down in the same year. I had spent time in several other coworking spaces and was enthusiasti
by crabasa 11y ago
I opened a co-working space in Seattle [1] last year and closed it down in the same year. I had spent time in several other coworking spaces and was enthusiastic enough to try my hand at it. To bits of caution here:
1) As the owner of a coworking space, your primary function is to be a landlord. You will spend much more time than you like thinking about deposits, pricing, payments, turnover, etc.
2) Building a community is incredibly hard. Harder than most people realize.
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20140406200827/http://devlocal.io/ https://web.archive.org/web/20140406200827/http://devlocal.i...?
- kaishiro 11y agoAs someone who has (often) thought about heading down this road - would you mind sharing why you closed? Was it a purely financial decision or just too much effort? Feel free to ignore if too personal, obviously. edit: spelling
- nkw 11y agoI am interested in this too. I would be very interested in a more detailed write up of the issues you encountered or things you learned.
- crabasa 11y agoPerhaps a decent analogy is the difference between dining out and running a restaurant. Once the honeymoon is over you realize that you're running a business that has large capex and terrible margins. You also might be in a city (Seattle, SF, DC, etc) where you are competing with well-capitalized juggernauts like WeWork. And despite your desire to create a community and engender loyalty, most coworking customers care about price, proximity, amenities and community in that order. I realized within 6 months that a small, boutique coworking space in Seattle wasn't creating sufficient added value to the community and was a poor use of real estate, money and my time.
- kaishiro 11y agoGotcha. Really appreciate the follow-up. Thanks.