Author: felcityatcubes

Smart Worker

I recently read an article about a man who was working from Indy Hall in Philadelphia for a company in Vancouver. Teleworking is not new these days and even working for a company located elsewhere on the globe isn’t that earth shattering with the technology for communicating 24/7. What was brilliant about this man’s story was that he had figured out how to get his corporation to pay the $275/month membership fee for him to work their full time. It’s a win-win for the corporation and the employee. Let’s do the math:

I recently read an article about a man who was working from Indy Hall in Philadelphia for a company in Vancouver. Teleworking is not new these days and even working for a company located elsewhere on the globe isn’t that earth shattering with the technology for communicating 24/7. What was brilliant about this man’s story was that he had figured out how to get his corporation to pay the $275/month membership fee for him to work their full time. It’s a win-win for the corporation and the employee. Let’s do the math:

A corporation typically pays for about

  • 200 sq. ft. for each employee – cubicle + hallway + breakroom + cafeteria + restroom + dead space like lobbies.
  • $4.00/sq. ft (minimum/month) – Rent + taxes + utilities
  • 200 sq. ft. * $4.00 = $800/month per employee
  • $800/month per employee – $275/cost of employee working in coworking space = $525/month savings

Now a company that employs 1000 people, if they had just half of the space in corporate office and let their workforce telecommute 50% of the time they would save $262,500/month ($525 * 500 employees) and $3,150,000/year. $3 million per year is not small potatoes and a great way to cut back.

The employee also saves money on gas But more importantly this employee benefits in intangibles such as lack of commute stress, living where his spouse needs to for her career, the community created in a coworking environment, and as a result is happier and more productive for his company. We would all benefit from more people using coworking spaces (checkout a list of my favorites). Of course, as the owner of Cubes&Crayons that’s my favorite for coworkers with and without kids.  I love it when everyone wins!

Face Time: Building the coworking community

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Alex Hillman of Phildelphia coworking space, IndyHall, about finding your niche as an owner of coworking space and than reaching that niche. Coworking spaces vary greatly in their audience. While coworking is about openness and community, each space has its own character and appeals to different groups. Alex wisely pointed out that each space has to build its community in order to be successful.

The face time is absolutely key to the success of any coworking community. There have been several posts recently on the google group about advertising, running events and building membership. To create the community that gets people in the door, you absolutely must put in the faceup. Alex tells a great tale about all the meetups he went to for a month or two before he even signed a lease. In his words, he was looking for “cool, interesting people who might also work from home.” He spread the coworking idea, got interested members, and then signed the lease and got up and running. Of course, we all want successes like Alex.

Finding that niche that is the right audience for your group requires more than just connecting through blogs, online groups, and cyberspace, you need to talk to the people you think will use your space. And you may discover that you don’t always know who will use your space. I was confident our primary members of Cubes&Crayons would be entrepreneurs. As of today, our membership, with the exception of myself, completely lacks entrepreneurs. We have freelance workers in all walks of life from medical translators to biotech researchers to recruiters to professors. It had been a pleasant surprise to find that the common thread comes from the atmosphere we have created more than their careers. We provide a professional and inspirational coworking space. We have new members come in because they are impressed with how much they get done and how much they enjoy working at Cubes & Crayons. And of course, one of my personal favorites is the praise for the free gourmet chocolates available in our kitchen.

In building our community, although word of mouth has been tremendous and we have had some good press (more to come…look for it this weekend), the best marketing has involved simply a conversation. Whether I am talking about coworking to fellow volunteers at a board meeting or hosting a meetup or event at Cubes & Crayons, or going out to meetups and organization’s events, the best marketing is when I tell people about our site, my story, and/or our clients. People are interested in people. Forget that you are “selling” your service. It is about getting people connected to other people in a great community that somewhere has a common thread. We are hosting a blogging day on April 11th to encourage bloggers to come and blog in our space as well as share blogging stories and ideas with each other. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Coworking: A Generational Thing?

I recently read a post about coworking being a generational thing for the millenials.  True, maybe?  But for those of you hanging out in the coworking places, is everyone a millenial?  Not even close.  The founders of most of these coworking sites are smart entrepreneurs who are beyond the millenial age, at least chronologically.  Just look at the photos from events at places such as IndyHall and Citizen Space and you notice that coworkers have embraced a common philosophy regardless of birth age.  At Cubes&Crayons, we have coworkers, coworkers with young kids, and coworkers whose kids have long out grown our space.

What occurred to me is that coworking is generational if you change your definition.  Coworking is about this “generation” of people altering the perception of “professional,” “work environment,” “colleague,” etc.  It is about hip people writing their own ticket for work.   Coworkers are skilled individuals who are prepared to be part of the global community.  They are interested in programs that are developing like PACTFund, where they can exchange their skills with other people’s skills.

And businesses need to be aware of and adapt to this changing workforce. I have been researching this avenue quite a bit and as much as “coworking” is hip and trendy, it is smart and necessary in our changing economy.  When software engineers end up doing business with colleagues halfway across the world, what’s to motivate them to come into a traditional office?  Isn’t it more interesting for them to be in a coworking space where they can meet people in all walks of life?  Businesses will be getting educated if they want to survive and stay competitive.  It is just a matter of time before this “generation” of coworkers changes the way businesses do business.

Coworking with a twist

Cubes&Crayons, my brain child, launched a little over a month ago and is essentially co-working with a twist. We offer a fantastic co-working environment – lots of different offices and places to work, a lounge, kitchen, library and conference room, flexibility in rates. We also have childcare on site and down the hall for those who need a place for the little ones while they work. You drop off your kid, walk 5 seconds to an office and are blissfully at work. And if you don’t have kids, no worries. You never have to see them if that isn’t your thing. The children don’t disrupt the work, co-workers get all the great benefits of co-working whether they are parents are not. It has been absolutely amazing to see people enjoying this vision. I have met great people online and in person and am loving the adventure of it all.

Our campus is in downtown Menlo Park, near Stanford University, which is great for work and to grab food or do a little shopping. We don’t have as many just straight co-workers i.e. sans little ones as I would like, but that takes time. I am still working on reaching that community in the Silicon Valley. I know they can’t possibly all be sitting up in SF. Where are all you rails software engineers and web 2.0 people? Come network…can’t wait to promote the business you create while hanging out at Cubes&Crayons. Comments always appreciated on this…

So, this is the first of what looks to be a long and heartfelt blog. My six month old daughter is snoring on my lap as I write this and I wonder what she will think of all this as she grows up. Will co-working be the norm and not the exception by the time she and her 2 1/2 year old sister are in the work world. I hope so. Only way to work in my opinion. Keep you posted on all…