CREATE A PROFITABLE COWORKING SPACE

Module 1

Create your Ideal Customer Avatar

The success of your business depends on designing a solution to meet a customer need. In order to do that, you must know your customer intimately and document their needs and base every business decision on those needs.

Here, we will create an ideal customer profile that will help you to select your location, your product mix, design, branding and more.

This module will set you up to successfully attract members and sell memberships.

Module Highlights:

• Use the Ideal Customer Avatar worksheet to flush out your ideal member.
• Create an Ideal Customer Avatar (ICA) profile to share with your team of qualified professionals.
• Learn how the ICA impacts all other business decisions and commit to your ICA as a critical reference point for all upcoming decisions.

Module 2

Build your Team of Qualified Professionals

Stack your chances of successfully serving your ideal customer by assembling a team of experts to help you to realize your vision and avoid costly mistakes.

Module Highlights:

• Set your budget (with my guidance) for your support team - attorneys, designers, architects, general contractors, real estate brokers, contract furniture agent, website design/build.
• Learn the contribution of each role and how to leverage them to create a space that will proudly serve your members for years.
• Use my Coworking Team member checklists and resource guide to quickly identify candidates and evaluate their fit for your project.
• Customize a kick-off meeting outline for each team member to clearly set expectations and waste no time getting to exactly what you need them to do to support your success.

Module 3

Validate Your Location

This is a real estate business and baby, it's all about location, location, location.

Module Highlights:

• Using your ICA from Module 1, and data from your qualified real estate broker, determine geographic options for your space to lay the critical foundation for your business.
• Create a competitive landscape matrix using my template to fine-tune and confirm your brand positioning and location options.
• Confirm the long-term fit of your potential locations reducing financial risk that could jeopardize your profitability over time. Get a list of the questions to ask to mitigate risks that most people never consider before signing a lease.

Module 4

Determine Your Product Mix

Your product mix will serve your ideal customer. Your ideal customer will buy memberships and create revenue (and the better you serve him, the faster you'll create revenue!).

Module Highlights:

• Set your monthly profit goals for your coworking business.
• Draft your dream Coworking Space product mix to align with your profit goals using our Space Builder Worksheet.
• Validate your product mix assumptions with your ICA using our Interview Guide.
• Expand your competitive analysis by conducting a local space tour and asking questions that prompt them to reveal product mix insights that can help you leverage their success and avoid their mistakes.

Module 5

Choose your Space Size

Your space size will drive your revenue potential and your revenue potential must align with your financial goals for your coworking business.

Module Highlights:

• Learn the factors that will determine the ideal size for your first space.
• Use our Choose my Coworking Space Size Worksheet to select your target size for your first space.
• Use our Financing Guide for First Time Operators to determine your best financing options.
• Get a preview of financing options including management agreements, for future locations if you are planning to scale your business.

Module 6

Draft Your Pro-Forma

This will be an iterative phase that will solidify your target space size and drive your decisions on location, buildout budget and lease term.

Module Highlights:

• Draft your pro-forma to synthesize your profit goals and startup budget. Here you will get a realistic picture of the potential of your coworking business.
• Work through our "What If" worksheet to problem-solve the inputs that you need to get more aligned to create your ideal model.
• Document and share your model assumptions with your team members to create alignment and avoid surprises throughout the process.
• Get really intimate with the coworking space business model, understand the most critical sensitivities, where the biggest successes and the biggest mistakes are made.

Module 7

Find the Space That Serves your ICA and Financial Goals

This is the time to stay true to the work that you've done to date and avoid getting impatient or emotional when choosing the location for your business for the next ten years. We're here to help you stay strong and focused.

Module Highlights:

• Use our Space Search Checklist to evaluate and take notes on the spaces you see with your qualified broker.
• Update your Draft Pro-Forma to test the impact of rent rates and space size as you see qualified candidates for your space.
• Create an irresistible layout and design aesthetic that will magnetize your ICA.
• Get a test fit developed on your most qualified locations that incorporates design and layout best practices.
• Get buildout costs on your most qualified space options to do the due diligence that will give you the confidence you need to sign a long-term lease.
• Revisit and update your Draft Pro-Forma to ensure that your model and financial goals are still aligned.

Module 8

Furnish the Workspace that will Capture your ICA at "Hello."

So many components go into the success of a coworking space. The location, the community you attract, the product mix you offer, and of course, the design and furniture. We are all visual creatures and like to judge a book by its cover!

Module Highlights:

• Select the furnishings that will wow your ICA in both function and aesthetics.
• Design the IT experience that will make your ICA wonder why the were working from home or Starbucks all this time.
• Overlay finish selections and brand colors that make the space uniquely yours.
• Update your Draft Pro-Forma with inputs from this module to ensure you stay on track with your financial goals!

Module 9

Develop the Marketing Foundation that will Funnel your ICA to your Front Door!

You built it! Now let's get them to join!

Module Highlights:

• Set pricing that aligns with your market positioning using our Product Pricing Worksheet.
• Develop a simple, yet high-performing sales-funnel to deliver your ICA to your door.
• Prep your mindset and get your tools ready to pre-sell your space.
• Setup and launch your marketing tech painlessly and fearlessly using our step-by-step guides.

Module 10

Optimize your Tech Stack for Staff and Member Happiness

Now that your space is coming together and you are preparing for launch, it's time to develop the tech stack that will create a streamlined workflow for your staff and your members.

Here, we'll guide you through selecting technology that supports each of your workflows from marketing to on-boarding to paying the bills.

Module Highlights:

• Determine your operational workflows.
• Get recommendations for your networking infrastructure including door access and security.
• Select your space management software.
• Choose a CRM that fits your business needs.
• Select your marketing tech stack that will drive your website, social media and member engagement.

Module 11

Hire the Team that will Deliver the Member Experience that you've Designed

Now that you're getting closer to opening your doors, it's time to get your on-site team in place.

Whether you're going to hire a team to support the space or you will be "the team," planning ahead to determine roles and responsibilities, training processes, staffing ratios and salaries and bonus structures will set you up for success.

Module Highlights:

• Design the roles that will support your ideal member and the "back-end" of your business.
• Create job descriptions leveraging our library of samples from top industry operators and industry salary data.
• Systematize your training approach to minimize the trauma of staff turnover.
• Setup your on-going leadership systems to create a healthy team environment that drives the results your business requires.
• Ensure that your payroll system and employee classification are set up to avoid confrontation with the government.

Module 12

Celebrate and Prep for Opening!

Now it's time to finalize all of the details and prep for our launch party!

Module Highlights:

• Let's get our plans in place for list-building, local networking and launch parties.
• Let's prep a launch month calendar in advance to keep you from getting too stuck in the details to focus on getting potential members in the door!