Hello, my name is SteveJ and I live in Missoula, MT. I am a P/C Agent
in California and work from home. I am currently very interested in
the coworking concept and potentially have a building that will work
to establish a coworking location in Missoula. Any ideas? Any
thoughts?
SteveJ
Steve:
Good (snowy) morning from Durango, CO. We are starting DurangoSpace
in January 2011 here in Durango, CO. Jury is still out on how it will
work, but we are ready to launch. Here is what we've done so far:
1) Six months of research, and 3 months of business planning. Maybe
more planning than we need, but we wanted to really understand
coworking.
2) We have been to NextSpace (Santa Cruz & SF, CA), Sandbox Suites
(Berkely, CA), Independents Hall (Philly), the Hub (SoMa in SF &
Berkeley, CA). the visits really help, including working in a
coworking space (and paying to see how the back end works). I spend
time working at Indy Hall and Next Space.
3) The secret sauce numbers are: a) 100 SF per workspace, so a 3,000
SF building has capacity for 30 workspaces, b) 2:1 ration of
members:workspace. So a 3,000SF space has capacity for 60 members
(or equivilent), c) Community first which all of the coworking
pioneers will tell you. It is about community and space, not just a
real estate play.
4) Do your homework. Our research shows that it is a "skinny
business model", the gross revenues and margins revolve around a fixed
cost model, so you can get started and lose money if you don't have
solid member support. This appears to be where most fail.
5) One your space, the business model does not afford much in the way
of lease hold improvements. Need to put capital cost into furniture
(flexible, comfortable, usable) and infrastructure support for
members.
Let us know how is goes....
Jasper
DurangoSpace, Durango, CO
On Dec 16, 10:07 pm, SteveJ <[email protected]> wrote:
Hello, my name is SteveJ and I live in Missoula, MT. I am a P/C Agent
in California and work from home. I am currently very interested in
the coworking concept and potentially have a building that will work
to establish a coworking location in Missoula. Any ideas? Any
thoughts?SteveJ
Hi Steve-
My name is Jennifer Ellington. I work for Steelcase, an office furniture manufacturing company. I moved to Missoula around 2 years ago and am now a distributed worker. I am struggling with finding appropriate places in Missoula to work. Coffee shops, though there are many, are very loud and it is difficult to conduct meetings. I have also explore the thinking around creating a WorkCafe here in Missoula. Steelcase has done a lot of research around creating great spaces for wherever work happens. Employee engagement is tied very closely to the environments which people work in. People need choice and control over how and where they work. Working from home works well at times, but there is a need to find a local location where one could go to be amongst their community in an environment that supports the Corporate worker. A WorkCafe could offer a place where people could come that offered different settings supporting different modes of work. There are excellent examples of these types of places in Seattle, Chicago, NY, San Fran, LA and Grand Rapids, Michigan. What are your thoughts?
Very Interested-
Jenn
On Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 10:07:53 PM UTC-7, SteveJ wrote:
Hello, my name is SteveJ and I live in Missoula, MT. I am a P/C Agent
in California and work from home. I am currently very interested in
the coworking concept and potentially have a building that will work
to establish a coworking location in Missoula. Any ideas? Any
thoughts?
SteveJ
Hi Jennifer!
I run space in Portland Maine, and we have a good partnership with Steelcase/RedThread here. They asked all the coworking space owners to be on a panel to talk to corporations about how to create environments that people will PAY to work in, and they also helped us do a redesign of our space. I also have some friend in Missoula that I might be visiting this September. I'll contact you directly.
Hi, Jennifer,
My name is Maria Ralph and I run a coworking space in Butte, MT. When I first started my space, I came across a contact for a coworking space in Missoula called MachCentral (which later became twenty20). The founder (Geoffrey Pepos) ended up closing it down. You may want to contact him to see what challenges he dealt with. Geoffrey Pepos - Missoula, Montana, StoryClockVR.com | about.me
Good luck,
Maria
On Friday, July 15, 2016 at 10:33:35 AM UTC-6, Jenn Ellington wrote:
Hi Steve-
My name is Jennifer Ellington. I work for Steelcase, an office furniture manufacturing company. I moved to Missoula around 2 years ago and am now a distributed worker. I am struggling with finding appropriate places in Missoula to work. Coffee shops, though there are many, are very loud and it is difficult to conduct meetings. I have also explore the thinking around creating a WorkCafe here in Missoula. Steelcase has done a lot of research around creating great spaces for wherever work happens. Employee engagement is tied very closely to the environments which people work in. People need choice and control over how and where they work. Working from home works well at times, but there is a need to find a local location where one could go to be amongst their community in an environment that supports the Corporate worker. A WorkCafe could offer a place where people could come that offered different settings supporting different modes of work. There are excellent examples of these types of places in Seattle, Chicago, NY, San Fran, LA and Grand Rapids, Michigan. What are your thoughts?
Very Interested-
Jenn
On Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 10:07:53 PM UTC-7, SteveJ wrote:
Hello, my name is SteveJ and I live in Missoula, MT. I am a P/C Agent
in California and work from home. I am currently very interested in
the coworking concept and potentially have a building that will work
to establish a coworking location in Missoula. Any ideas? Any
thoughts?
SteveJ