Interior Design

Create a Space That Offers Your Members Both Flexibility and Fun

When it comes to truly innovative interior design, coworking spaces must appeal to a number of delicate balancing acts. Office environments should foster productivity but also collaboration, appealing to both introverts and extroverts. Some of the most inspiring coworking spaces turn the idea of a ‘traditional office’ on its head entirely by designing spaces that feel more like coffee shops or loft parties and less like the cubicle offices of decades past.

B.sorted, a work space in Bucharest, Romania, was designed around the concept that no employee should be stuck working at a desk. Their solution includes lots of nooks tucked into the architecture of the space, which allows for productivity for everyone regardless of their preferred work environment. Between their color scheme, foosball table, and ceiling hammocks, they clearly don’t suffer from any shortage of fun and playfullness, either.

Offering a more clean and modern aesthetic, Cape Town-based coworking space, Work&Co also offers plenty of seating options that mimic everything from what you’d expect to find in a traditional office to a coffeeshop—styled like a friend’s living room and complete with a kitchen island—it offers a polished and modern look to set its members up for success when tackling that daunting to-do list.

The Office Space, a coworking space based in Sydney, Australia, offers members many areas with natural light to get their work done with versatile seating arrangements and privacy levels that feel inviting and warm.

Pull Inspiration From Coffee Shops and Cafes

Why limit design inspiration to coworking offices? After all, the spirit of coworking—in many ways—more closely resembles the work style you’d see in a coffee shop than a traditional office.

We love the quirky architecture of the 9 ¾ bookstore in Colombia, which features hexagonal nooks designed for cozying up with a great book. Along with adding visual interest to break up a room, little spaces like these, in the context of a coworking space, help give those who seek silence a space to focus on their tasks (or even take a little catnap).

Many coworking spaces, such as The Farm SoHo and TechSpace in NYC (pictured above), have already taken a page out of the coffee shop’s proverbial design book, seeking to mimic the environment where many of their members feel most comfortable getting work done.

You may also like: Business Plan for Coworking Spaces

Marketing Your Venue

So, now that you’ve designed your coworking space and have a vision for who you want to attract as members, how do you go about filling your new coworking space and building a presence in your community?

Market Before You Launch

Ideally, you should gain some traction and word of mouth interest for your coworking space by starting your marketing efforts ahead of your official opening. According to DeskMag’s Global Coworking Survey, two in three coworking spaces start promoting their space at least a few months before they officially launch. In our eyes, it’s never too early to start! Even if your space isn’t ready yet, it’s worth building relationships out in the community in order to begin generating a buzz. However, it’s also never too late to start (or resume, if you’ve fallen off the marketing wagon). There’s always room for improvement and truly efficient marketing campaigns are always running in the background in order to stay engaged with your community online and offline.

Befriend Your Neighbors

Take it to the streets. Look for opportunities to work with the other local companies in your community. This could take many forms: Asking local restaurants to cater events at your coworking space, looking to get your members discounts for the local businesses they might be interested in utilizing (restaurants, parking lots, gyms, car-share services, etc.), even simply walking into local businesses and introducing yourself; the possibilities are endless. Darryl Bosa, founder of Vancouver-based SpaceKraft, sees the discounts he’s been able to offer to his members from the community surrounding his coworking space as one of three crucial pillars of SpaceKraft’s membership proposal. In Darryl’s eyes, finding ways to lower his members’ overall monthly expenses allows them to spend more time (and money) on running their business and enjoying their personal life with less stress, which is a pretty persuasive value proposition.

Getting into the habit of constantly introducing yourself and having conversations about your space is a great exercise. You never know who might be a resource for you, and it’s a great way to “walk the walk” of running a space all about community if you establish yourself as a community-building champion of your neighborhood.

Get Social

Social Media is one of the most affordable and most effective ways for you to market your coworking space, if done efficiently. The first decision to make is whether you’re targeting a hyper local (mostly monthly memberships and dedicated desks) or global audience (appealing to the travelling business executives and digital nomads looking for less permanent solutions), or some combination of the two. Look to follow the kinds of people who you’d love to have as members, coworking spaces you’d like to emulate, and writers who spend their time deep in the trenches of breaking coworking news. See what they’re posting about and jump into the conversation. Search hashtags like #coworking, #startup, and #entrepreneur to get news and new connections. There are so many ways to build community digitally and it’s definitely worth your time.

Add Events and Courses to Your Roster

Hold events at your coworking space (workshops, panel discussions, even film screenings or art shows) to give people the chance to experience your space without committing to a membership. Kolektif House is a great example, as they were able to bring 6,000 people into their space in their first year when they made the decision to funnel $1,000 of their marketing budget into throwing events instead of using Google Adwords. A great way to build engagement for your space is to offer opportunities for those using your space to channel their expertise into leading lunch-and-learns or teaching more intensive courses. Opening these up the the public (while offering your own members a discounted enrollment fee) is a great way to build interest and credibility for your space in your local community and keep your more senior members engaged.

Kolektif Brunch III from Kolektif House on Vimeo.

Market Your Space on ShareDesk

Perhaps one of the best options for marketing your coworking space would be listing it on ShareDesk (though we of course might be just a bit biased). Leverage ShareDesk’s community of thousands of users searching to find their next space by setting up a beautiful venue profile which will allow you to capture and manage new leads, growing your member base and visibility.

Listen, Listen, Listen.

When you begin marketing your coworking space, you don’t really know who you will attract to join your community. But once you start gaining members, they will help define your space; make sure you’re bringing them into the conversation. Engaged, happy members will want to spread the gospel of your space organically and that kind of “word of mouth marketing” is some of the hardest to come by and the most effective. At the end of the day, your space can’t be purely about making money–you’ll see the most bang for your buck by focusing on the needs of the people who use your space.

Get one step ahead

Download our free Ultimate Guide to Managing a Coworking Business.