I am just opening the first coworking space in Merida Yucatán (mexico) (www.nodocowork.com)
We are just 3 weeks of starting with this great project but struggling with the first members to sign in. They come, they try the coworking, get great reviews from them but then I don´t get them to come pack and decide to pay. How did you all managed with this? We are starting to organize different events to create more community bunds which I hope it works.
One thing I am not liking is that when they come and try it out there is nobody but me working here so they don´t really feel like coworking. I was thinking to invite like brand embassadors to work from here during one week and on that week invite all the interested people on coworking to give it a try, to feel the real coworking effect and then “if you pay in the next few days you get a week for free” Any other suggestions? I am still waiting for the first coworker to open the dance floor!
I am just opening the first coworking space in Merida Yucatán (mexico) (www.nodocowork.com)
We are just 3 weeks of starting with this great project but struggling with the first members to sign in. They come, they try the coworking, get great reviews from them but then I don´t get them to come pack and decide to pay. How did you all managed with this? We are starting to organize different events to create more community bunds which I hope it works.
One thing I am not liking is that when they come and try it out there is nobody but me working here so they don´t really feel like coworking. I was thinking to invite like brand embassadors to work from here during one week and on that week invite all the interested people on coworking to give it a try, to feel the real coworking effect and then “if you pay in the next few days you get a week for free” Any other suggestions? I am still waiting for the first coworker to open the dance floor!
This sounds ridiculously familiar. This was us a little more than a year ago. In addition to launching without an established community, we opened up with “punchcard” rates ($xx for y days to use whenever they want), which didn’t encourage any sort of regular usage.
We took extreme measures to combat five months of loneliness: We switched up to a membership based system, promoted the hell of it, and had a “membership drive” week: Free for everyone for a solid week, and members who signed up during that week got 50% off their membership for the first six months. I can’t say whether or not that will work in all situations, but it was what finally got us a good, solid crew of 13 members coming in on a regular basis. From that point on, we’ve had continual 7-10% growth each month.
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On Tuesday, June 17, 2014 7:56:27 PM UTC-4, Tamara Acosta wrote:
Hello community,
I am just opening the first coworking space in Merida Yucatán (mexico) (www.nodocowork.com)
We are just 3 weeks of starting with this great project but struggling with the first members to sign in. They come, they try the coworking, get great reviews from them but then I don´t get them to come pack and decide to pay. How did you all managed with this? We are starting to organize different events to create more community bunds which I hope it works.
One thing I am not liking is that when they come and try it out there is nobody but me working here so they don´t really feel like coworking. I was thinking to invite like brand embassadors to work from here during one week and on that week invite all the interested people on coworking to give it a try, to feel the real coworking effect and then “if you pay in the next few days you get a week for free” Any other suggestions? I am still waiting for the first coworker to open the dance floor!
I think that maybe a mix of what Alex is saying and of what Andy is saying maybe can work out. I just read the post about junk food and healthy food compared to coworkers and absolutely I agree. Specialy here in mexico people trend to be either very participant or very very quite and shy. I already have a list of the people I would send in my mission to mars. I already decided witch of them could feet on the space ship. Maybe I should focus on giving them a free week and at the end of the week, openly tell them why I chose them and offer them the next three months with 25% off and IF they don´t like it, i can give them the money back (I am sure they will like it). That same week, with the space with participative and interesting people, i invite other interested members to try out the coworking and see who stays and who doesn´t stay… it´s all about traying and meassure… I don´t want to spend 5 months of loneliness!!! but I need to keep my mind cold to choose the right decisions. Thanks you all for your advices I will still be informing everything on the group =)
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El martes, 17 de junio de 2014 19:41:42 UTC-5, Andy Soell escribió:
This sounds ridiculously familiar. This was us a little more than a year ago. In addition to launching without an established community, we opened up with “punchcard” rates ($xx for y days to use whenever they want), which didn’t encourage any sort of regular usage.
We took extreme measures to combat five months of loneliness: We switched up to a membership based system, promoted the hell of it, and had a “membership drive” week: Free for everyone for a solid week, and members who signed up during that week got 50% off their membership for the first six months. I can’t say whether or not that will work in all situations, but it was what finally got us a good, solid crew of 13 members coming in on a regular basis. From that point on, we’ve had continual 7-10% growth each month.
On Tuesday, June 17, 2014 7:56:27 PM UTC-4, Tamara Acosta wrote:
Hello community,
I am just opening the first coworking space in Merida Yucatán (mexico) (www.nodocowork.com)
We are just 3 weeks of starting with this great project but struggling with the first members to sign in. They come, they try the coworking, get great reviews from them but then I don´t get them to come pack and decide to pay. How did you all managed with this? We are starting to organize different events to create more community bunds which I hope it works.
One thing I am not liking is that when they come and try it out there is nobody but me working here so they don´t really feel like coworking. I was thinking to invite like brand embassadors to work from here during one week and on that week invite all the interested people on coworking to give it a try, to feel the real coworking effect and then “if you pay in the next few days you get a week for free” Any other suggestions? I am still waiting for the first coworker to open the dance floor!
Felicidades por el nuevo espacio. Mi nombre es Patricio Ramal y tengo, junto con mi socio Luis Othon Villegas, un Coworking en Guadalajara llamado Nevermind. Nosotros tuvimos exactamente el mismo problema. Encantado de ayudarte con ideas, solo que por aquí sería muy largo de escribir. Si te interesa, te mando mi correo patr…@nevermind.mx y nos ponemos de acuerdo para una reunión.
Por otro lado, hay varias cosas pasando alrededor del mundo del coworking en México que a lo mejor te interesaría participar.
Te deseo éxito en tu espacio y por favor no dudes en responder en caso de cualquier pregunta
Saludos
Patricio
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El martes, 17 de junio de 2014 18:56:27 UTC-5, Tamara Acosta escribió:
Hello community,
I am just opening the first coworking space in Merida Yucatán (mexico) (www.nodocowork.com)
We are just 3 weeks of starting with this great project but struggling with the first members to sign in. They come, they try the coworking, get great reviews from them but then I don´t get them to come pack and decide to pay. How did you all managed with this? We are starting to organize different events to create more community bunds which I hope it works.
One thing I am not liking is that when they come and try it out there is nobody but me working here so they don´t really feel like coworking. I was thinking to invite like brand embassadors to work from here during one week and on that week invite all the interested people on coworking to give it a try, to feel the real coworking effect and then “if you pay in the next few days you get a week for free” Any other suggestions? I am still waiting for the first coworker to open the dance floor!
When we first opened Cohere 4.5 years ago we had done a few weeks of community building in advance so we have 15 or so people already on the hook but some of founding members came during the very first month. I offered free coworking for a whole month to get things rolling. With the recent opening of Cothere a few weeks ago I only did the grand opening day as free but offered anyone who signed up ON THAT DAY a free upgrade to the next level of membership for a month. That was super effective and we signed up 7 new members right away. I think having a small window of opportunity to sign up was really helpful in getting people to pull the trigger.
As for events, the following have been super successful
Frank Fridays: started as a group field trip to a hotdog stand but then we got tired of hotdogs so it changed to just eating lunch together and each week one member would tell us about themselves and seek advice or help.
Potlucks: we’ve dabbled in pancake day, chili cookoff day and others. Food is important. Also Pizza. Because Pizza. People are always happy to pitch in a couple bucks too for Pizza. Because Pizza.
Monthly breakfast at the most delicious breakfast place. We’ve been doing this for 4 years. I limit RSVPs to 8 so everyone can hear each other. I prepare ONE question for the group (in the car, on the way to the meetup and it’s usually seasonally appropriate) and we go around and answer that after we order food. This event has been the most popular and longest lasting of any event. It is also evenly split between members/non-members. Example questions I have asked: What’s an awesome project that you’ve worked on recently? What’s a project you’ve declined and why? If you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of advice about freelancing, what would it be? When’s the last time you really fucked up? Who are you most thankful for? We often say that you trade one stress for another when you choose to freelance–what stresses have you traded? Tell us something you need help with. Here’s a link to that meetup–we also forbid ninja starring people with biz cards. Login to Meetup | Meetup
We’ve had a 14 class series completely developed and run by the members. That was amazing! Topics ranged from SEO tricks to self care.
Any member is welcome to use our meetup group to plan and market their own events as long as the event is happening at Cohere or planned by a Cohere member.
The most recent event we’re doing is Foregoing Home Connectivity for 5 days. The idea of this has actually caused a little conflict in the group which has been incredible…then they remembered that I can’t force them to do anything and they calmed down I am planning this event as a strategic way to get lots of bodies coworking for 5 solid days–to get them hooked again and remember why coworking is so great. Sometimes I feel that because Cohere has been around so long they get in a “oh, I’ll just go tomorrow” mentality so this is a way to invite participation and try something that makes us all a little panicky. ANYONE in the world is welcome to join us. It would be fun to get to know new people in far away coworking space as we share the experience. Here is the link to that one.
That’s just a handful of the 100 things we’ve done over the past 4 years. Generally, the most successful events are those that are thought up and executed by members for the benefit of the whole.
-Angel
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On Tuesday, June 17, 2014 5:56:27 PM UTC-6, Tamara Acosta wrote:
Hello community,
I am just opening the first coworking space in Merida Yucatán (mexico) (www.nodocowork.com)
We are just 3 weeks of starting with this great project but struggling with the first members to sign in. They come, they try the coworking, get great reviews from them but then I don´t get them to come pack and decide to pay. How did you all managed with this? We are starting to organize different events to create more community bunds which I hope it works.
One thing I am not liking is that when they come and try it out there is nobody but me working here so they don´t really feel like coworking. I was thinking to invite like brand embassadors to work from here during one week and on that week invite all the interested people on coworking to give it a try, to feel the real coworking effect and then “if you pay in the next few days you get a week for free” Any other suggestions? I am still waiting for the first coworker to open the dance floor!
I wanted to know if this coworking space is still active? I've tried to visit the website but it doesn't load, just a black page.
I'm interested in visiting the space Mid-August as I am moving to Merida from Playa. I would love to be able to get out of the house & get my work done, as well as meeting other creatives & practicing my Spanish.
..en español.. Mas on menos...
Quiero saber que si este espacio de coworking está abierto todavía? He probar su sitio pero creo que no está funcionando ahora. Solo ví un pago blanco.
Estoy interesado con este espacio porque me voy a mover a Mérida desde Playa casi un mes. Me encanta ir a trabajar afuera de mi casa y quedar nuevas personas creativas y practicar mi español también.
I am planning this event as a strategic way to get lots of bodies coworking for 5 solid days–to get them hooked again and remember why coworking is so great. Sometimes I feel that because Cohere has been around so long they get in a “oh, I’ll just go tomorrow” mentality so this is a way to invite participation and try something that makes us all a little panicky. ANYONE in the world is welcome to join us. It would be fun to get to know new people in far away coworking space as we share the experience. Here is the link to that one.