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CONFIDENTLY

CREATE A PROFITABLE COWORKING SPACE

THAT YOU LOVE TO RUN

Avoid expensive mistakes, tech overwhelm, and "I don't know what I don't know" syndrome.

ENROLL NOW

WHAT PEOPLE DON'T LIKE
TO TALK ABOUT

Is that 50% of coworking spaces aren’t profitable.

 

I’m not talking about the normal start-up phase where you’re building your recurring revenue to get to break-even.

I’m talking about the people who reverse-engineered someone else’s coworking business and made a lot of assumptions about how the business works…or let their fears rule their decisions…and now have unfixable mistakes that are standing in the way of not just profitability, but the kind of business that matches their lifestyle goals.

This approach can have even savvy entrepreneurs and real estate investors trying to survive (with a lot on the line) and feeling resentful toward a business that was supposed to be pretty straightforward and at the same time, a manifestation of their many passions.

I’m here to try to get in front of your reverse-engineering, assumption-making process to make sure you’re in the 50% of coworking spaces that ARE profitable.

LET'S BE HONEST
Most Coworking Advice

is Sunshine and Roses

 

The focus is on building community and connection. The content and advice from vendors is surface-level at best and AI-generated at worst.

NO ONE GETS INTO THE HARD STUFF LIKE...
 

  • What if your pro forma is based on the wrong assumptions?
  • What if you sign a bad real estate deal?
  • What if you choose a product mix that limits your profitability?
  • What if you sign a management agreement that will never make money?

I want you to stare down all of the real, hard decisions and still want to start a coworking space and feel like you won’t get the sugar-coated version that will lead you to making mistakes you’ll regret later.

Here’s what our Coworking Startup School Students Do that Put them in the 50% of Profitable Coworking Spaces.

 

IMAGINE YOURSELF JOINING THEM:

#1

THEY DO THE WORK TO REALLY NAIL WHO THEY ARE SERVING

 

You are not serving everyone in your neighborhood with a laptop. Even if you are in a smaller market, you will not win by trying to attract everyone in town who has a choice about where they work.

Who is your ideal member and how will you design your business around how to serve them best? 

The answer to this question is the foundation of a coworking space that sells memberships at a pace that drives profitability and creates a strong membership and community.

I get it. It's not the sexy part of planning out your new coworking space. You'd rather jump into designing the podcast studio. But I assure you, this is the critical foundation that drives good business decisions. 

This step isn't hard to do with the right framework - and most of your competition will skip right over this and take the "aim, ready, fire" approach giving you the opportunity to stand out.

#2

THEIR PRODUCT MIX ALIGNS WITH MARKET DEMAND

 

One of the biggest challenges for soon-to-be coworking space operators is picking a profitable product mix that aligns with demand in YOUR market. Your product mix includes things like….number of offices, size of offices, number of meeting rooms, size of meeting rooms).... Your products will drive the space layout, the buildout costs, and ultimately, your ability to SELL.

Our students don’t reverse-engineer a beautiful coworking space that they assume is profitable (there’s a 50/50 chance it’s not…)...they confidently create a product mix that they know will be profitable.

100% of coworking space owners make mistakes on product mix and space layout when they make assumptions or take free advice.

#3

THEY KNOW THEIR NUMBERS

 

Creating a profitable coworking space requires a careful balance of inputs to create a recipe for a successful financial model.

You need the right product mix, pricing, rent rate, lease term, buildout budget, startup costs and marketing know-how to make this work.

No single component is rocket science, but you want to know how to put it all together and what questions to ask to stress-test the model to set your business up to shorten your road to profitability.

Our students may not come into our program knowing their numbers, but if they follow along, they gain the clarity and confidence they need to design a profitable coworking business model.

Knowing their numbers gives them the confidence to…. 

  • Keep looking when the deal terms aren’t right.
  • Not sign a management agreement that will never be profitable.
  • Not pay franchising fees if that structure isn’t a good match for their goals.
#4

THEY HAVE A PRE-SALES AND POST-LAUNCH MARKETING PLAN THAT WORKS FOR COWORKING

 

This is not an "if you build it, they will come" business. 

It’s also not a “build your community first” and then they will buy memberships. Your personal network is not going to support your business.

To attract and close members, you must execute a few core marketing strategies to create a healthy sales funnel.

And no, one of them is not to spend your time on organic social media.

Imagine having a pre-sales and post-marketing playbook to follow that cuts right to the chase and gives you a framework to follow that works.

#5

THEY RESIST ANALYSIS PARALYSIS WHEN IT COMES TO MAKING TECH DECISIONS

 

Are you spending a lot of time in free Facebook groups trying to figure out what billing system to use, what door access system is best and what access points to buy? Then you’re not spending enough time on pre-selling your space.

Our students use our Coworking Space Technology Guides to make good, and efficient decisions about their full tech stack so that they can get selling faster.

 
Dr. Christina Hansen Cohen

Founder & President, Therapy Suites, Inc.

 
Dr. Christina Hansen Cohen

Founder & President, Therapy Suites, Inc.

Jodie Gallant

WORK Lakes Region Laconia NH

"The program was a game-changer. It equipped me with the knowledge and resources needed to make informed decisions that have been pivotal to our success. The 'AHA' moment for me was realizing how crucial the right location is and how a proforma can map out expected outcomes, providing clarity and direction. Thanks to the program, Vision & Heels is not just a dream but a successful coworking space. For anyone looking to break into the coworking industry, this program is a comprehensive guide that covers all you need to know to succeed."

"Yes and more. As experienced C-Suite Executives, we had a vision for our space but knew that having" Been there/done that" resources from the Coworking Startup School accelerated our success. We opened at the beginning of Covid and know that if we hadn't gone through the Startup School, our path would have been even more challenging. The up to date information as well as the networking between coworking operators throughout the world was extremely helpful."

“​​The mentoring given by Jamie is second to none. She provides a roadmap of how to get from point A to B and takes all of the guesswork out of the equation. “

"We go up and running and profitable in 5 months. we attribute this to the coaching and direction of the school, Jamie, and the podcast"

”If you'd like to own a membership-based workspace of any kind, Coworking Startup School is a must! It's one of those investments that ends up saving you money in the long run.”

“The program exceeded my expectations, teaching me not just what to do, but also what pitfalls to avoid. A standout moment was realizing the importance of tailoring services to meet the needs of my target market, a strategy refined through potential member interviews. Thanks to the program, our space has seen significant wins in income and leads by being listed on key referral platforms. I wholeheartedly recommend Coworking Startup School™ to anyone looking to ensure their coworking space's success. It's a crucial step that saves time and avoids costly mistakes, offering a blend of group learning and the opportunity for deeper dives into strategy. This experience has been invaluable in making my coworking space a thriving community hub."

INTRODUCING THE

Coworking Space Business Validation System and Launch Playbook

The Coworking Space Business Validation System and Launch Playbook to help you create a profitable coworking space that you love to run!

ENROLL NOW

The Coworking Startup School™ is

The ONLY program of its kind that…

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Will make sure you are so clear on your ideal customer avatar that your space will magnetize

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Design a product mix that aligns with market demand and your startup budget

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Gives you clarity and confidence in every line of your 10-year pro forma so that you can create a profitable business and feel equipped to pursue outside fundings

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Gives you a playbook to pre-sell your coworking space so that you can kick start the monthly recurring revenue that will get you to break-evens

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Helps you stay out of tech overwhelm and choose just what you need to optimize your operations and member experience

Here's The Proven Framework

That You Will Follow:

STEP 1

Create your Ideal Customer Avatar

The success of your business depends on designing a solution to meet a customer's needs. To do that, you must know your best customers intimately, document their needs, and base every business decision on those needs.

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

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

Highlights of This Step:

  • Use the Ideal Customer Avatar worksheet to flush out your ideal member.
  • Create an Ideal Community 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.
STEP 2

Choose the Space Size that Aligns With Your Goals

In this step, will select the size of space that will align with your goals. Explore sample floor plans and use our Select a Size™ Framework.

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

Highlights of This Step:

  • Learn the factors that will determine the ideal size for your first space.
  • Use our Select a Size™ Framework to select your target size for your first space.

 

STEP 3

Create Your Menu of Products, Services & Pricing

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!).

Highlights of This Step:

  • 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.
STEP 4

Draft Your Pro Forma

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

Highlights of This Step:

  • Draft your pro forma using our plug and play template 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, and understand the most critical sensitivities, where the biggest successes and the biggest mistakes are made.
STEP 5

Assemble Your Professional Team

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

Highlights of This Step:

  • Set your budget (with our guidance) for your support team - attorneys, designers, architects, general contractors, real estate brokers, contract furniture dealer, and 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 our 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.
STEP 6

Find the Space that Meets Your Goals and Set Up Your Real Estate Deal for Success

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.

Highlights of This Step:

  • 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 incorporate 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.
STEP 7

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!

 

Highlights of this Step:

  • Select the furnishings that will wow your ICA in both function and aesthetics.
  • Design the IT experience that will make your ICA wonder why they 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!
  • Get a test fit developed on your most qualified locations that incorporate 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.
STEP 8

Choose Your Coworking Tech Stack

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

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

Highlights of This Step:

  • Determine your operational workflows.
  • Get detailed sample budgets and sample equipment lists 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.
STEP 9

Set Up Your Sales Funnel

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

Highlights of This Step:

  • Develop a simple, yet high-performing sales-funnel to deliver your ICA to your door.
  • Get our Pre-Sales Playbook to take the guesswork out of the pre-sales process
  • Setup and launch your marketing tech painlessly and fearlessly using our step-by-step guides.
STEP 10

Set up for Pre-Selling Success

Cash is king and to get the cashflow kicked off, you need recurring revenue as soon as possible. Having a pre-sales campaign in place is critical. That's why we developed our step-by step Coworking Pre-Sales Playbook. It includes the blueprint and templates you need to run your pre-sales process with ease.

Highlights of This Step:

  • What to expect from your pre-sale period
  • Pre-selling timeline
  • Pre-Launch Sales Activities
  • Founding Member Offer Ideas
  • Pre-Sales Email Template
  • How to Host Hard-hat Tours
  • How to Set Up a Landing Page to Capture Emails
  • SampleLandingPageTemplate
  • Sample Social Media Pre-Launch Campaigns
STEP 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.
STEP 12

Celebrate and Prep for Opening!

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

Highlights of This Step:

  • Let's get your plans in place for list-building, local networking, and launch parties.
  • Use our Coworking Playbook: Launching with Confidence and Flair to plan and host your grand opening party and ribbon cutting.

Ready To Unlock Your Instant-Access To This Proven Framework For A Profitable Coworking Business?

Enroll NOW To Get Instant Access To:

1. The Full 12-Step Coworking Startup School™ Framework ($1297 Value)

2. The Coworking Guide, Playbook, and Template Library which includes a plug-and-play pro forma model, Membership Agreement, Event Agreement, Launch Blueprint/Project Plan, Detailed IT lists and Budgets, Community Manager Job Description Template (and swipe files), sales process email templates, and more ($4500+ Value)

3. One or Three months of live group coaching and peer support in our Coworking Coaching Club ($291 Value)

4. One pro forma review by the Everything Coworking Team ($297 Value)

Total Value = OVER $6,382!

Here’s a list of what’s included in the template bundle

(worth the investment in the course on its own!!)

PLUG AND PLAY PRO FORMA MODEL

($2500 VALUE) 

MEMBERSHIP AGREEMENT TEMPLATE

($750 VALUE) 

EVENT AGREEMENT TEMPLATE

($750 VALUE) 

LAUNCH BLUEPRINT AND CHECKLIST

($197 VALUE) 

DETAILED IT BUDGETS BY SPACE SIZE

($97 VALUE) 

COMMUNITY MANAGER JOB DESCRIPTION TEMPLATE (EDITABLE)

($97 VALUE) 

PRE-SALE EMAIL TEMPLATE

($97 VALUE) 

SALES PROCESS EMAIL TEMPLATE

($97 VALUE) 

Self Study

$997

  • Immediate access to all course materials

     

  • Access to our Coworking Guide, Playbook and Template Library

     

  • 1 free month of our Coworking Startup School Coaching Club (group coaching over Zoom + Slack support).

Enroll Now

LIVE COHORT

$1497

  • Immediate access to all course materials

     

  • Access to our Coworking Guide, Playbook and Template Library

     

  • 3 free months of our Coworking Startup School Coaching Club (group coaching over Zoom + Slack support).

     

  •  Four 90-minute group workshops to go through Steps 1-4 live with you over Zoom

Enroll Now

1:1

$10,000 +

 

A Coworking in a Box, “done for you”, 1:1 service. If you are a landlord, looking for an alternative to franchising, or just prefer to short-cut this process by leveraging our expert team, schedule a 1:1 call to see if this is a fit.

Schedule Your Call Now

BONUS: 1 pro forma review over Zoom to make sure you're nailing your numbers. (We insist.) ($297 value)

The Coworking Startup School™ Value Guarantee

The Coworking Startup School is the most proven, comprehensive, step-by-step implementation program for anyone ready to start a coworking space.

Upon purchase, you will receive access to our twelve-step framework to guide you step-by-step through identifying your target member, building your team of qualified professionals, and validating your location.

If within 30 days of purchase, you don't feel confident in your plan, simply reach out, show us that you've done the work in the first three steps of the framework and we'll refund your investment. Just email [email protected] with the details.

These brands started with the Coworking Startup School™

                                                                                                               

Hi, I'm Jamie Russo

I founded two coworking spaces - one in Chicago, and one in Palo Alto, California. I was the President of the League of Extraordinary Coworking Spaces, Executive Director of the Global Workspace Association and I host the Everything Coworking Podcast and co-host the Flex Uncensored podcast.

Through this unique combination of roles, I have a deep, first-hand experience in coworking and unparalleled access to industry knowledge, best practices, experience, and leadership.

Through my Coworking Startup School™ and Everything Coworking Club membership, our team has helped hundreds of people just like you realize their dream of launching a successful coworking space.

I created the Coworking Startup School™ because I was in your shoes and I made ALL the expensive mistakes. But I got to the other side...and I want to save you from some of that pain. My superpower is breaking the complex into manageable chunks, I have a strong operations orientation and I am also a spreadsheet boss (I have an MBA from the University of Chicago). Our industry is exploding and if you want to be a part of it, I want you to have the tools and support you need to be successful.

Picture yourself at the front desk of your new coworking space welcoming in your new members alongside your rockstar Community Manager.

 

  • You’re feeling focused and confident.
  • Yes, the project was a lot of work, but you cut out the headaches and avoided costly mistakes by joining the Coworking Startup School™. Some of our members make their entire investment back in Step 2 of our framework.
  • You’ve signed a commercial lease (or committed to putting coworking in a building you own) but you’re feeling comfortable with that risk because you know your numbers and you know you have a product mix that sells.
  • You are on track to hit your monthly revenue goal because you didn’t spend time over-analyzing your tech stack or creating a pre-sales strategy from scratch - you used our guidebooks and templates and spent your extra time on signing members up before you even opened.
  • You take a moment to appreciate the confidence that you’ve grown into through by following a proven framework and not just assuming you could figure it out on your own. There was too much on the line for that.

Frequently Asked Questions

What people asked before signing up for the Coworking Startup School