Competitor or Collaborator? How to make the absolute best of a new coworking space opening in your city.

Reposted from Tony Bacigalupo’s blog


Coworking is not a zero sum game (yet). New spaces are opening all over the world every single day, but if we keep thinking of this simply in terms of desks and chairs then we’re missing the bigger picture.

Do you know why WeWork is valued at $10 billion? Because they’re betting big on something that we all intuitively know: work as we know it is fundamentally shifting forever. How many people work 9-to-5 for an employer who has an office of their own today? How many will still be working in the same way, managed the same style, in a space owned by their employer, in 5 or 10 years? I don’t think nearly as many will be, because more and more people will be working in increasingly flexible, creative, independent ways. WeWork and their investors are betting big on it, and the proliferation and success of so many coworking communities with no signs of slowing down serves as continued evidence of the fact.

So when a new space opens in your town, why consider them a competitor? Compared to the potential size of the market, how much market share are you really going for, anyway?

If the successful coworking communities I’ve seen are any measure, your best bet by far is to become friends. Offer your help, in a way that is true to you and that maintains the integrity of your community and your brand.

Make your community a place people will know as not just a great place to work but as an ambassador for coworking in your region. Make it THE destination people will tell others about when someone wants to learn more about coworking.

Xenophobic coworking spaces:

  • Have to do all of the marketing themselves
  • Can’t celebrate when other like-minded people start similar communities nearby
  • Can’t tell members about valuable happenings in other places that you know about
  • Can’t celebrate when members “graduate” to another space
  • Must educate people on what coworking is and how it works all by themselves
  • Face increasing pressure as more and more spaces open and rents go up

Magnanimous coworking spaces:

  • Celebrate everything that’s happening around coworking in their city and the world
  • Happily share good news and valuable information with whoever asks
  • Off help and advice to other space owners, and get their help in return
  • Have an easier time raising awareness of not just their space but of coworking in general
  • Open themselves up to more expansive possibilities
  • Increase the chances they’ll be recognized by the local governments
  • Feel less alone

…in other words, it makes a lot of sense to be friendly with your fellow coworking spaces.

If you’re an established early adopter in the coworking world, then you have an opportunity to deepen your role as a space that not only has operated for a long time, but has led the charge in growing coworking across the city.

If you’re a new space in a crowded city, paying your dues by befriending fellow space owners opens up new avenues for people to find your place.

In Milan, in 2008, Massimo Carraro opened a coworking space as a part of his advertising firm’s office. Once he got the processes up and running, he set out to make it easier for other companies like his to implement the same kind of model in their offices, the Cowo Project was born, and since then has grown to 161+ spaces all across Italy and now Switzerland as well. In exchange for an annual fee, each participating space gets branded promotional materials, professional photographs of the space, listing on the project’s online network, access to online discussion groups, and an invitation to a bi-annual convocation of all participating members.

In short, Massimo didn’t build a coworking space and then hang back and brace himself for competitors: he actively went out and recruited people to build new spaces like his, and put himself at the center of the emerging ecosystem.

In speaking with Massimo, he told me a saying they have in Italy:

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Unity is strength.

Cowo – Coworking Project

 

Read more at TonyBacigalupo.com

Collaborative Consumption and the Coworking Community

“Collaborative consumption” is a shift from individual consumption habits to a focus on trading, sharing & bartering. And it’s happening in coworking.

By Angel Kwiatkowski

“Collaborative consumption” is a new phrase that has entered our business and social lexicon. It signals the way some people are changing their consumption habits away from individual consumption and toward a focus on trading, sharing, bartering and lending within a community. And it’s happening in coworking.

Infographic on CollaborativeConsumption.com
Infographic on CollaborativeConsumption.com

In thinking about how coworking relates to collaborative consumption, it’s no question that coworking fosters the kind of atmosphere that allows for—and encourages—sharing and trading. As described on the about page of this blog:

Beyond just creating better places to work, coworking spaces are built around the idea of community-building and sustainability. Coworking spaces agree to uphold the values set forth by those who developed the concept in the first place: collaboration, community, sustainability, openness, and accessibility.

Collaborative consumption is all about community and sustainability. Coworking is also about community and sustainability.

To make this idea of collaborative consumption a bit more tangible, following are some examples you may have heard of or used:

  • Superfluid – allows people to collaborate by trading favors using “virtual currency”—in essence, bartering
  • Zopa and CommunityLend – social lending
  • Airbnb – a “community marketplace for unique spaces”
  • Freecycle – a place to give and find stuff for free
  • ZipCar – carsharing
  • CouchSurfing – allows travelers to make connections with people, and rooms/couches, in the area they’re visiting
  • Swap – swap books, CDs, movies and video games
  • B-Cycle – bike sharing system
  • Hyperlocavore – a yardsharing community

So, how might collaborative consumption happen in a coworking community?

  • Trading skills/expertise with another member for mutual benefit
    (for example, a graphic designer creates a logo in exchange for a fellow copywriter creating newsletter content)
  • Sharing resources
    (for example, several coworkers may pool their collective buying power to get lower rates at a local gym)
  • Exchanging ideas
    (though collaborative consumption focuses mostly on products and services, brainstorming and ideating are still valuable “commodities”)

A recent post on the Global Coworking Blog highlights some of the ways that sharing and trading happens amongst coworkers.  And another post discusses several of the ways that coworking can save a small business—including bartering and brainstorming.

Of course, this is not to say that sharing and trading are the be-all, end-all to community and economy; we all still have bills to pay and cold hard cash to tender. But this shift in thinking seems like it’s here to stay.

If this topic piques your interest, check out these insightful reads about collaborative consumption:
Infographic – GOOD.is: Sharing is Contagious
Article – Inc.com: Understanding the Consumer of the Future
Book – What’s Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption
Book – The Mesh: Why the Future of Business Sharing

Have you shared your resources or skills with others at your coworking space? What about the “collaborative consumption” worked? What didn’t work?