Comments on: Can Coworking Spaces Be Profitable?

By: Holly Blondin

Holly Blondin — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:57:44 +0000

I am in the processing of starting a coworking space in New York City. For those of you who have already started your coworking businesses, could you share your challenges in finding the “right” space and also what was your initial overhead?

By: Bleddyn Williams

Bleddyn Williams — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:06:27 +0000

This is a great topic and one that we are dealing with in London Soho where we have a co-working community of around 50 freelancers and small businesses in all. I think that a vanilla-co-working space is break even if you are lucky. In the long term as the other posters have said, there needs to be some other revenue that brings in that little bit extra, whether that be additional telephone answering services, PA services, Seminars and so on. We are trying a mix of these at the moment.

By: Betriebswirtschaftliche Gedanken rund um profitable CoWorking Orte | CoWorking News

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:35:50 +0000

[...] Artikel zum Weiterlesen sind „How Co-working Is Working in Portland“ auf businessweek.com und „Can Coworking Spaces Be Profitable?“ bei Web Worker Daily. Diesen Artikel bewerten: (Keine Bewertung bisher) Loading [...]

By: How Coworking Is Working in Portland

How Coworking Is Working in Portland — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:01:52 +0000

[...] it remains to be seen whether coworking spaces can be profitable, the founders I spoke with in Portland say they’re up to the challenge. Many learned a [...]

By: CubeSpace to Close

CubeSpace to Close — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:01:42 +0000

[...] and well-liked coworking community being forced to close. As Imran noted in his post “Can Coworking Spaces Be Profitable?“, coworking spaces often run on paper-thin margins, sometimes only just breaking even, or [...]

By: SocialMinder and Consorteum: Get More from Your Contacts

SocialMinder and Consorteum: Get More from Your Contacts — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:02:15 +0000

[...] The Consorteum is a group of seven individuals with skills in software architecture, .NET development and information architecture that is offering a fixed daily rate for access to all its participating members. Clients are allocated an engagement manager who gathers requirements and musters resources from the consortium members to fulfill the requirements. I imagine we’ll see more of these types of groupings evolving from coworking communities. [...]

By: Graze: Netflix for Healthy Snacks?

Graze: Netflix for Healthy Snacks? — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:01:19 +0000

[...] 17th, 2009 (7:00am) Imran Ali No Comments In my post on whether coworking spaces could be profitable, I mentioned Graze, an innovative healthy snack delivery service that seems to be taking off here [...]

By: Coworking Wrap-Up

Coworking Wrap-Up — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:01:51 +0000

[...] Can Coworking Spaces Be Profitable? [...]

By: Imran Ali

Imran Ali — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:36:19 +0000

@Glenn & @Tony - thanks for your comments :)

@Jeremy - Do contact me (imran@ali.name) about putting together a closer WWD look at NextSpace.

By: Jeremy Neuner

Jeremy Neuner — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:38:17 +0000

I’m the co-founder and CEO of a NextSpace, a coworking space in Santa Cruz, CA. We’ve been open for just over six months, have over 100 members, and are at the break-even point in our business model. I agree that a long-tail approach to profitability is the way to go. We could cram more paying members into the space (we have almost 11,000 square feet and can handle more members), but at some point, the experience for the members drastically diminishes in quality. Many have written that in a coworking space, the community comes first. I completely agree, so we’re careful (after learning some tough lessons) with how we balance what’s good for the community vs. what’s good for the business. So for now, we’re turning to training and education as an additional revenue stream. Later this month, in cooperation with a few of our power members, we’re launching The Hope Foundry (www.HopeFoundry.com). Our intent is to train new Drupal developers, which is a high-demand skill set in Santa Cruz and Silicon Valley. The program is free to students and is underwritten by local businesses that need new websites. Once the economy climbs out of the abyss, we will develop additional revenue streams through consulting and capital formation. But we’re excited about Hope Foundry and all of the amazing stuff that our members are working on at NextSpace.

By: Tony Bacigalupo

Tony Bacigalupo — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:30:54 +0000

It's something we've been thinking a lot about at New Work City, and it looks like some answers may lie in those last two bullet points (education + events).

In both cases, you're making use of the space during off-hours and still offering things that are complimentary to the community and the membership models.

IndyHall is heading in this direction already, and it will be very interesting to see how these models evolve over the course of the next year as coworking spaces continue to mature.

By: Glenn Friesen

Glenn Friesen — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:49:01 +0000

great article. I think demand gor coworking spaces will continue to grow as corporations continue to cut staff and job market remains competitive. With a talented but jobless pool of people, there’s bound to be more high quality entrepreneurs looking for a base.