Comments on: Ideal co-working space concept

By: @hkmr

@hkmr — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:24:37 +0000

What about a House in Home Park?

Could that do the job of a coworking space.

By: @hkmr

@hkmr — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:28:53 +0000

Cheaper Version:
1. Beds/Hammocks
2. Meeting/Work Rooms- 2 birds one stone.
3. Coffee Machine ($400/month can support an office of 50-100 people for coffee)
4. Outdoor Kitchen & Indoor Fridge- a restaurant's too expensive for a true bootstrap.
5. Occasional hot food vendors visits
6. Printer & Copier
7. Rentable Projectors
8. Occasional stationary(paper) vendor Visits.
9. Stationary Desktops ideal for programming Ninjas.
10. Patio- for events.
11. Lock and Key storage rooms.
Recurring Costs
-Wi-Fi costs
-Rent
-Donated/ Craiglisted Fridge
-Cleaning Costs or member duties
-BBQ Machine
-Gas/Electric Range of some sort for cooking.
-Electricity
-Water
-Coffee Machine refills

By: mitchell

mitchell — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:14:22 +0000

for about a month or two, i tossed around the idea of trying to develop a coworking or hacker space in midtown. my major stumbling block was the issue of how to make it profitable. i had a few people onboard with the concept, but not very many. prime real estate in atlanta is expensive, even in this down economy. the numbers just didn’t fit.

also, atlanta now has freeside atlanta (http://wiki.freesideatlanta.org/) which would undoubtedly draw some of the interested crowd. looks pretty cool, too, but not in an ideally convenient location.

having said that, i’d be willing to give it another go if the market and cost issue can be consolidated.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:39:19 +0000

I've been forced to work out of Starbucks for the past month while I help my wife attend to some family business in LA. Here's my $0.02 on the pros and cons.

Pros:
- Coffee and $0.50 refills to stay perked up.
- Other drinks when you want a change from coffee and modest snacks too. $5.00 sandwich is fine when you don't want to break your groove.
- Piped in music that drowns out some of the other's conversation.
- Free(if you're an AT&T customer) WiFi
- Usually ample table space and power.
- Open most daylight hours.
- Air Conditioned.
- You can have a conversation without being overheard to much.
- Bathroom is readily available.
- They don't seem to mind you hanging there all day.
- You can have a phone conversation without bothering other people to much.

Cons:
- WiFi requires you to log in. That's not possible on some devices.
- Bandwidth can suffer if there are a lot of people online downloading bit-torrents.
- Air Conditioning. No matter how hot it is outside, your body will eventually chill.
- Piped in music. Loops after a while and is the same for all locations. This can start becoming distracting.
- Noise. Random blender running, children crying, banging, shouting etc.
- Visual distractions of people moving around and coming in and out.
- They do close eventually whether you're finished or not.
- You can run up a pretty good bill if you have a stream of latte's and breakfast, lunch, and dinner there. Menu is still limited.
- If you want to pop out of a bite somewhere else, you have to pack up everything.
- Not completely private, you might not want to discuss your sales projections.
- I can get to loud for a phone conversation.
- Sunlight can be to bright for laptop at times.

I've tempered some of the cons with this strategy. I found a SB that is not to far away that doesn't have a drive thru. It's got a table area that isn't next to the coffee machines. I find or wait for a table so that I can face the wall. At one point the noise was getting to be to much of a distraction. I ended up finding this site http://whitenoisemp3s.com/ and downloaded some brown noise and eventually one of wind noise. I put this on and bring the volume up just enough to mask out the ambient noise.

I've also found that a local law school's library will let you just sign in. This is better for serious focus and concentration. The only problem is that it's hush-hush. You'd have to step out for a conversation or phone call.

This has all been fresh in my mind, so I thought I'd dump it out here.

-Andrew

By: Ryan Sloan

Ryan Sloan — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:03:46 +0000

Sounds like the Entrepreneur’s version of the Gym Membership
All in all, it’s a pretty sweet idea but I think logistics and execution would be a serious handful. You’re essentially running a hotel with a giant business center. Not to say that it couldn’t work, but it would certainly be a challenge. I also wonder about how receptive the target market would be to a membership fee (which could be fairly hefty) when they can just head to Starbucks.
That being said, I think a coffee shop specially tailored to entrepreneurs could be a big hit. The problems that I have when I work out of coffee shops (and I do quite frequently) is a lack of desk space, or scarcity of power sockets. A coffee shop that could address these things (while producing tasty beverages, of course) would probably be my office of choice.
All things considered it’s a good post.

-Ryan

By: brian

brian — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:56:33 +0000

No love for the GT Library? I’d like to hear your thoughts later this year about the new Second Floor West of the library. It is being renovated for group study… and while it won’t have showers or a stationary shop let me know what you think. I liked your ideas here– gives those of us in the "group work industry" something to think about.