How to Run a Coworking Space the Right Way: 5 Tips from Kasia Stelmach
of Hub Sydney
Kasia Stelmach is the Community Lead and Business Development Manager at Hub Sydney. She previously ran one of Australia’s largest Tech co-working spaces and has learned to apply her background in Marketing, Communication, and Design into the coworking industry.
Have a space you think would be great for a coworking community? Crave an environment of creative people? You’re on the right track. Creating a coworking space is a unique type of business with special considerations to be made.
Now you can learn about running a coworking space from someone who’s been there. Kasia joined me to give her best tips on how to run a coworking space.
1. Think Like a Hotel Concierge
Kasia suggests that people who come from a service industry might be the best fit for a coworking space, especially when they have experience taking care of high-end client. You and your staff need to understand the stresses of your audience and what they do.
Imagine a hotel concierge. He understands that when a businessman comes back from his meeting he’s going to be stressed and tired. The businessman might want coffee ready in his room.
It’s these little touches that uplevel a coworking space.
2. Internet is Key
If your internet is down, there’s chaos. You have to make sure you have your network sorted. Be prepared with back up plan after back up plan because things will get messy if you’re not prepared.
3. Cater to a Variety of Different Industries
You want people to be able to collaborate in a coworking space. Connection is why people turn to a coworking space in the first place. In order to facilitate collaboration, you’ll need people from many different industries. If they’re all from the same industry, they feel threatened, and they’ll be less likely to collaborate because they fear losing intellectual property. If the people in your coworking space have no common ground at all, they might not be able to communicate.
An environment where people are in parallel industries but not direct competitors is the perfect coworking space.
4. Listen Carefully
Your ‘co-workers’ should dictate how your coworking space evolves. Since these are the people using the space, they’ll have the best ideas on how it should evolve. Give them an opportunity to have a voice even if you think you know better. And don’t assume you know everything. Someone may come in with an entirely different business with different needs. Unless you work in that industry, you won’t know what they need.
Community ultimately curates its own community. You have to relinquish control and give it to the people in your coworking space. Of course, there’s an element of risk handing over control to your members. You have to remember that the space is for them and if you don’t deliver on their pain points, they’ll work somewhere else.
5. Invest in Your Space
You have to invest in your internet, quality coffee machines, and making your space pretty. To have a unique culture, you must create a space you want to be in. Kasia lives her dream life through the events and spaces she creates at Hub Sydney. If she wants to play soccer, she organizes it as an event. It’s this kind of thinking that will really create the community in your coworking business.
Kasia always wanted to work in Google. She wanted a colorful, dynamic place without cubicles. So that’s what she created. It’s easy to drop a lot of cash investing in your space. There are checks and balances that need to be made. If it’s going to make a difference, an investment in your space should be considered.
