About The Coworking Handbook

• Author: Ramon Suarez – founder of Betacowork Coworking in Brussels, and President of the European Coworking Assembly. He opened his coworking space in 2010. Betacowork is the largest and more dynamic coworking space in Brussels, with over 200 members. Betacowork opened on a Friday night at 6pm; by Sunday they had 5 signups; after their first month they already had 29 members. Here are his Website, his Facebook account and his Twitter account.
• Pages: 204
• Paper Version: $39
• Kindle Version: $34
• Book + Coaching: $500
• Content: “Welcome! You’re about to join a worldwide movement that’s shaping the future of how we work and live. In The Coworking Handbook you’ll discover everything you need to know about opening, managing and growing a successful coworking space. Avoid the common pitfalls of this exciting new industry and learn what really works around the world from experts and founders of the coworking movement. You’ll learn: * How to facilitate member connection and address member issues * Why building a community first matters * How to handle sticky financial situations * How to design, orient and position your space in * the community * The most important areas of a coworking space (that many overlook) * How to work with journalists and get steady media attention * How to grow your coworking space into a profitable business More than just a thinker’s guide, this handbook is full of actionable ideas, including bonus checklists, spreadsheets, links to online resources and more, helping you jump right into building your ideal space and thriving community. Become a part of the movement that’s re-shaping our relationship with work into one that’s sustainable, creative and healthy—and learn how to make a profit along the way”

Review

The coworking handbook is an interesting book that covers all topics that are of interest for coworking space owners and everyone who wants to open a coworking space – especially all the tables are very helpful for the process of planning and setting up a coworking space. There are also many tips that are helpful while operating a coworking space.

No questions remain unanswered about how to create a community, how to market your coworking space, how to finance your coworking space and how to calculate all costs, how to find the right space with the right size, which coworking plans you should offer, what legal issues you have to discuss and how to find the right lawyer, how to convince people that coworking is right for them and many more.

Many tables and spreadsheets help you with keeping the overview over everything. Examples for surveys that can point out positive and negative points about your coworking space are also included. In my opinion, it is the perfect handbook for everyone that has never run his own business and especially not his own coworking space. People that have done that, will also find many helpful point but not as many as those that have not.

I seriously feel like I could open my own coworking space after reading the book. It also has brilliant tips for the marketing efforts you should employ, especially on social media. Every coworking space owner should have this book to look at it every time he is not sure about a specific thing.

For many topics, Ramon told the reader about his own experiences, which was also very interesting.

Even more resources can be found here on his website.

Conclusion

You should buy this book if you plan on opening your own coworking space in the future or if you just opened it and you don’t feel like searching for all information on the internet but having everything together and quickly accessible in one handbook.

Ramon Suarez knows what he is talking about and even though I have not tested it, I think that his coaching will also be very helpful and make your coworking space grow fast.