We have just opened our coworking space and have ran into a few scenarios we didn't think through.
We currently have 6 private offices and 2 are currently occupied. My question is how does everyone handle additional members sharing an office? Do you allow a certain amount to be added for free, or do you charge an additional fee for additional users?
I ask this question because we have a company wanting to reserve an office and they also want to add a business partner and their wives to the office and as members. Which means we will obviously increase some cost on us (security badges, additional utility costs, toiletry supplies etc) marginal cost increase but still an increase.
We’ve used models where each office includes a certain number of memberships, and an agreed-upon rate for additional members.
It’s completely fair and to be expected. It can actually be great if a team is too big for its own space; it helps ensure they don’t hole themselves up in their room and never interact with the rest of the community.
I’ll add a little beware: allow the team to occupy a large portion of your overall membership at your own risk. They will leave one day, and that day will hurt a lot.
Counter this by working hard to develop a strong relationship with the team and founders. Look for all opportunities to integrate their culture with the rest of your membership’s, and consider how they might continue to participate in your community when they do one day leave.
Good luck!
Tony
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On Thu, Mar 10, 2016 at 8:25 PM, Adam Gullett [email protected] wrote:
We have just opened our coworking space and have ran into a few scenarios we didn’t think through.
We currently have 6 private offices and 2 are currently occupied. My question is how does everyone handle additional members sharing an office? Do you allow a certain amount to be added for free, or do you charge an additional fee for additional users?
I ask this question because we have a company wanting to reserve an office and they also want to add a business partner and their wives to the office and as members. Which means we will obviously increase some cost on us (security badges, additional utility costs, toiletry supplies etc) marginal cost increase but still an increase.
I had this same scenario happen to me when I first opened. With the desire to create community and a buzz I allowed a large team to occupy what should be a 2 person office. Then realized that at the end of their one year membership I would need to have some conversations about the use of the office. It was a hard conversations with a lot of “what ifs” like what if some is only here one day a week or 4 hours a week. I had to explain as you said the cost of having more people in the space. We did come to an agreement that it is a 2 person office with $50/person additional and that they would be responsible to decide what constitutes an additional member and what constitutes people coming in for meetings. You definitely want to get this defined early on.
Have a good one!
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On Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 8:34:47 PM UTC-7, Adam Gullett wrote:
We have just opened our coworking space and have ran into a few scenarios we didn’t think through.
We currently have 6 private offices and 2 are currently occupied. My question is how does everyone handle additional members sharing an office? Do you allow a certain amount to be added for free, or do you charge an additional fee for additional users?
I ask this question because we have a company wanting to reserve an office and they also want to add a business partner and their wives to the office and as members. Which means we will obviously increase some cost on us (security badges, additional utility costs, toiletry supplies etc) marginal cost increase but still an increase.
We have a basic price for using the space and after that you pay for what you use. We also have a private office arrangement.
For the private office, if somebody has rented an office and it is theirs, they have a key and can do with it what they like, it is none of my business unless it causes problems with other coworkers.
For the use of space +, they pay for what they use. But who is using it is not really my problem unless again they are causing problems with the other coworkers.
It is important to keep these separated. My current private rental coworker has a shop in products for atheletes in the front space. It’s his and he can let anybody he likes use it. He also has a massage therapist who comes once a quarter to the location and does sport massage. This is not the kind of thing you want to do in a shop, so she books the upstairs space (which is for small meetings) and he gets it on his bill. How he works it out with her is not my problem either.
He is not stupid and is aware that getting things for free is fun, but it is less fun if the space has to closed because it doesn’ t make any money. That is also part of being a memebr of a community.
I am in general not a fan of categorizing things in little boxes, but in this case I am: it is important that your coworkers know what they are and are not paying for and what the boundaries are.
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On Friday, March 11, 2016 at 4:34:47 AM UTC+1, Adam Gullett wrote:
We have just opened our coworking space and have ran into a few scenarios we didn’t think through.
We currently have 6 private offices and 2 are currently occupied. My question is how does everyone handle additional members sharing an office? Do you allow a certain amount to be added for free, or do you charge an additional fee for additional users?
I ask this question because we have a company wanting to reserve an office and they also want to add a business partner and their wives to the office and as members. Which means we will obviously increase some cost on us (security badges, additional utility costs, toiletry supplies etc) marginal cost increase but still an increase.
We advertise the offices as a 2 person office, or a up to four person office on our website. This sets a finite limit to the number of people that can use the office and if they want to add one more person for an $100 increase if they will use it part time. It’s an honor system and I don’t monitor it but it has always worked out.
I used to charge $25 for each additional office member but then I ended up just raising the rate for offices and people can cram in as many as they want. My ONE requirement is that any extras in an office have to register as a member, act like a member and feel like a member:)
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On Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 8:34:47 PM UTC-7, Adam Gullett wrote:
We have just opened our coworking space and have ran into a few scenarios we didn’t think through.
We currently have 6 private offices and 2 are currently occupied. My question is how does everyone handle additional members sharing an office? Do you allow a certain amount to be added for free, or do you charge an additional fee for additional users?
I ask this question because we have a company wanting to reserve an office and they also want to add a business partner and their wives to the office and as members. Which means we will obviously increase some cost on us (security badges, additional utility costs, toiletry supplies etc) marginal cost increase but still an increase.
FYI, each additional member can often trigger more admin time to onboard, or just more liabilities:
printer driver(s)
key(s)
more coffee/tea/supplies will get used
etc.
I do agree that the less up charges, the more ideal. But at least from my experience, I can’t infinitely absorb all this admin time and additional expenses for supplies. Could just be the way I operate…
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On Wed, Mar 23, 2016 at 1:57 PM, Angel Kwiatkowski [email protected] wrote:
I used to charge $25 for each additional office member but then I ended up just raising the rate for offices and people can cram in as many as they want. My ONE requirement is that any extras in an office have to register as a member, act like a member and feel like a member:)
On Thursday, March 10, 2016 at 8:34:47 PM UTC-7, Adam Gullett wrote:
We have just opened our coworking space and have ran into a few scenarios we didn’t think through.
We currently have 6 private offices and 2 are currently occupied. My question is how does everyone handle additional members sharing an office? Do you allow a certain amount to be added for free, or do you charge an additional fee for additional users?
I ask this question because we have a company wanting to reserve an office and they also want to add a business partner and their wives to the office and as members. Which means we will obviously increase some cost on us (security badges, additional utility costs, toiletry supplies etc) marginal cost increase but still an increase.