Shared Office Space, Part Two
So, I’ve been tossing this idea around in my head off and on for the past few weeks. I received a few emails from people who were interested in possibly renting some office space if I were to go through with a venture of this nature.
To give you some context, I typically spend about 50% of my day working out of various coffee shops. Not only do I see lots of other business people doing the same thing, but I run into lots of students as well, most of which are using laptops or studying. So wouldn’t it be cool if there was a dedicated place that these people could go to work and/or study?
I have an appointment on Friday to walk around Garrison Village and look at some office space there. The cost is more than I am willing to pay, but I’m hoping there’s some wiggle room. Without a doubt, the nicest office I was ever in was in Yaletown years ago. It was a software company, but each desk had a throw carpet underneath it, some plants nearby, and a few gas fireplaces to create some ambiance in the winter. Free pop and coffee were available as well.
So that’s one of the ideas in my head. I would probably cater half of the space towards individuals that want a dedicated desk, and the other half of the space towards walk-in individuals and laptop users.
I need to ask people here to give some input though. If you can drop a comment with some of the following, that would be great:
- Would you be interested in hanging out at a shared office space location?
- How important is it to you to have a meeting room available to meet perspective clients?
- What would be a reasonable drop-in fee, given that Wi-Fi access and some beverages would probably be included
- Would you want it to be library quiet, or possibly have music going like in coffee shops?
- How important is access in the evenings and weekends?
I’m also looking for people that would be interested in a dedicated desk, probably around the $300 – $400 mark a month. The more people I can get that are interested from the get-go, the easier it is for me to commit to moving ahead with all of this. One thing you can be sure of is that this would probably be one the most web saavy businesses in Chilliwack, and I would plan to run it completely paperless if possible.
If you’re interested, please drop me a line at duane (at) duanestorey (dot) com as soon as you can. Someone also contacted me and I lost their address, so please send me another email. Thanks.
1 – I’d hang out at a shared office space location if there were a reason I’d be needing to use it i.e.)collaborative community project. Then again, I’m not the target demographic.
2 – Meeting rooms are important, especially if they are large enough to act as training facilities. There is a decent market for training room rentals. Most companies I’ve been a part of have a dedicated board room, but again, this is not relevant to your demographic. I would be apt to use it to book meetings for training or community associations.
3 – It depends on what the drop-in fee time-line is. How many hours of access do you get as a drop-in user? What does the fee entail (beverages, workspace, WiFi,____.)I suppose existing rates at similar businesses in the Lower Mainland would set a precedent. Obviously the profit isn’t in drop-in users, but monthly/annual membership fees/room rentals. Drop in is a loss leader.
4 – Faint background music, providing it isn’t loud or overly genre based (rap, metal, techno) is good. Dead quiet tends to be annoying, especially for the 15 – 35 year old demographic that grew up with noise while studying/working.
5 – Weekends/evenings would probably be even more of a priority than daytime hours, as most people have places to go and things to do M-F from 9 – 5. I could be wrong.
I doubt that any of this was at all helpful, being that I’m not the target for your business, but it’s feedback, right?