246. The Power of a Niche Coworking Space

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246. The Power of a Niche Coworking Space

00:00:01 Welcome to the Everything Coworking podcast, where you learn what you need to know about how the world wants to work. And now your host coworking space owner and trend expert, Jamie Russo. Welcome to the Everything Coworking podcast. This is your host, Jamie Russo. Today, we're going to talk about the power of a niche co-working space. So a few thoughts to start one.

00:00:41 I love a niche coworking space, and I'm going to share why as we go through the episode today, and if you're watching us on YouTube, I'm going to share some examples as we go through on my screen. So find us on our YouTube channel. We'll put the link in the show notes would, you can pull up by clicking on your, if you're listening on your podcasts details in the episode that you're listening to.

00:01:06 But the first thing I want to mention is that definitely don't feel like you need a niche coworking space. I have a number of folks, maybe almost all of them that are not all of them, but many of my Coworking Startup School students are working on niche, coworking spaces. So these folks are aware of the concept of Coworking and they want to apply it to a specific user group and be pretty exclusive to that group.

00:01:34 So I love that for many reasons. And I think that if you listen to the full episode, as we talk about how important it is to get the messaging, right, if you're a niche space, you might pick up some insights that apply to your more generic space. Generic is in quotes. If you're listening, air quotes. So the reason you don't need any space is that most markets are still really underserved.

00:02:01 When it comes to Coworking, flexible office space, as a service, whatever type of model that you run, you can go into most markets and still not find too many amazing generic spaces for everyone. Let's call them for everyone spaces because generics not a very flattering term. So we know that roughly 2% of the commercial office market in bigger markets is flex space or coworking space.

00:02:32 So we are still very early on in terms of market penetration. And most people think that now that the whole world has changed how they work, the demand will continue to go up. Even before the pandemic Jones Lang LaSalle was predicting that eventually 30% of commercial office space will be flexible space. So hang in there and create your coworking space for everyone. Execute really well,

00:02:59 do all the things right? And you can have a successful business with that, but I want to talk to my folks that are working on their niche space. So here's why I love a niche space. I think niche spaces, if your niche is big enough in your market, which you do need to validate. If you're in a tiny market doing a tiny niche,

00:03:21 although I do have a brand new Coworking Startup School student, and I won't give out all of her details, but she is in a pretty small market, but has a pretty interesting niche that I think will actually work in that small market because I think it attracts people, the market itself attracts this niche. So that can happen too. So I got to thinking about niches because I have a number of folks in the Coworking Startup School,

00:03:48 working on them, thinking about messaging. And also because I recently had a niche experience that I wanted to apply to Coworking. I always think it's good to have non business related experiences or non Coworking related business experiences that you can apply to Coworking. So I'm having a back issue, which will get better, which is great news, but it's a real pain to work through.

00:04:16 So I had initially waited a couple of weeks to get into the one highly reviewed physical therapy place in my neighborhood. And it's still not really close to my neighborhood. That space, that co sorry, that physical therapy location is still about 20 minutes. I'd been there before many years ago, and I did a quick Google search to see if I could find any other good ones.

00:04:46 And, you know, Google reviews are super critical in my mind. So I'm not going to a physical therapy place that can't get their act together and get great reviews. And if that's you get your visits together and get your reviews updated on your Google business profile, because it matters a lot. So I couldn't find any alternatives. And so I said,

00:05:06 okay, I'm going to go to the place that I went to before. And I had been to both the chiropractor and when I went to this physical therapist and actually I did a virtual physical therapy session as well, because it couldn't get into the PT place. And I was like, I got to talk to somebody about this. They all said I could continue to do my CrossFit activities,

00:05:26 which there's a little voice inside of my head that said, that cannot be right, because you cannot sit. You cannot stand without pain. How can you clean and jerk? Right. So I did have a CrossFit chiropractic friend, not in town who said, you need to stop doing ballistic movements until this gets better. And I sort of ignored her and she was out of town and I was like,

00:05:48 you know, that's not what I want to hear. So I'm going to ignore that. So this is where the niche comes in. So this location, I'm going to pull it up on my screen. Oh, they don't even have a favicon on their website. Okay. If you're looking on screen, you know, when you have the little tab,

00:06:06 when you have your tabs open and there's a little icon, I've met each app, but there's as a WordPress icon, you don't want that. You need your own icon. Even if you're a small business, let's get it right. So on their homepage, it simply says physical therapy specialists in one of those big header things with scroll bars that zero people ever click,

00:06:29 right, you've already put you've defaulted to something totally generic. It takes up the entire half of the screen. I have to scroll to get to anything more specific. So all they say is physical therapy specialists. Yes. I know that's what your business is called. It's called apex physical therapy. You've told me nothing new. And now I see your three locations.

00:06:50 And then I see a bunch of famous athletes with their jerseys. And then I see a little bit more detail. So I, that is the, for everyone physical therapist. So that is the place that I went to. And that is where I had the experience that they said, you can continue to do whatever you're doing. I think they thought I was swinging kettlebells,

00:07:13 not doing clean and jerks and squat snatches. And my sessions were also fairly generic. I had spent eight minutes warming up my back on a heating pad. And then I would do the exercises on my little sheet that I'm already doing at home. And I would not get the actual physical therapist until like for like five minutes at the end of my appointment.

00:07:33 And w nobody would watch me do anything athletic, only the exercises. So anyway, I was like, this is probably not what I need. I need something more specific. And I started asking around and I said, okay, I need a physical therapist that understands CrossFit, because I want to, I want to believe what someone tells me about my activities and how I'm going to get better.

00:07:56 What can I keep doing? What do I need to stop doing? And for how long, and what are the things that I'm going to do that are actually going to make me better, faster. So I asked my friend, Christine, and she was like, oh yeah, I use this guy in San Francisco. Well, he moved to LA.

00:08:10 And that was about all I could drum up until I asked a guy in my CrossFit gym who is literally 70 years old. He's awesome. And he said, oh, the only guy I would trust is Mike Chin. Mike Chin moved to Milpitas and opened his own practice. Mike Chin used to be a coach at the CrossFit gym that I went to and loved,

00:08:30 loved, loved, loved, loved, and it broke my heart. It closed during COVID. It closed the first week of golf forever. So Mike was a coach there and he actually dug this out of my memory banks, fixed my husband's shoulder. My husband had something wrong with his shoulder was told they needed to have surgery. Mike Chin said no surgery.

00:08:48 So, but I said, the first thing I said was, well, I cannot drive to Villa pitas for physical therapy because Milpitas is 45 minutes from my house that is too far to try for physical therapy. So I sat on it and I kept going to the, for everyone space. And then after a couple of weeks, I was like, this,

00:09:04 I can't, this is not networking. So I reached out to Mike and had a short conversation with him and it was very clear. I just felt super comfortable. As soon as I talked to him, let me share my screen. And I'll tell you what his website says, P three, athletic. I don't love the name. I don't think it's,

00:09:22 nobody knows what P three means, but to Mike, it means prevention, performance, physical therapy. So he's got this headline. I don't have to scroll to get to this headline. And it says we empower active individuals to overcome pain and build physical resilience in a safe one-on-one office environment. Perfect. That's exactly what I want. I am an active individual and I want to get back to what I'm doing quickly.

00:09:52 And then there's a video from Mike Chin about how we can help you. And then there's some information about how they work. Some client testimonials, et cetera. But that headline is like super, super clear. And then they have their surfaces, physical therapy prevention, performance training. Clearly, this is the place for me. And Mike Chin is a CrossFit coach,

00:10:13 it turns out Mike Chin was not available. He was full. So he said my only option was to meet with his counterpart, which I did. So the other important thing to mention besides the fact that I'm now driving 45 minutes to get to my physical therapy appointment is that Mike Chin does not bill insurance for you. So Mike Chin is much more expensive than the regular physical therapy place.

00:10:40 So the regular physical therapy place was $30 copay. And the insurance company paid for the rest of it. My gin is private pay. He sells packages, kind of like coworking spaces, packages of eight or 12, I think. And you have to private pay and you can submit for reimbursement. So I call my insurance company. I have a deductible to get to before I can submit.

00:11:05 And then they would pay for about half of what each appointment costs. And I thought about this for about 30 seconds and said, you know what? I need, I need this to get better. I need to get back to my CrossFit. And I need it for my health. I need it for my mental health. And CrossFit is like my hobby.

00:11:23 It's what I do for fun with my friends. So this place is the right place for me. It's more expensive and it's far away, but I'm going to do it. And I have had those twinges as they go along about the drive. One time, it took me an hour and 10 minutes because of traffic. So now I manage it very carefully,

00:11:39 but that means I have to go at weird times. So next week I have an early appointment during rush hour. So I'm going to have to drive down and sit at a Starbucks and do work so that I can manage rush hour, but never once have I said, this place is so hard to get to that. I'm going to go back to the,

00:11:55 for everyone place, because this is exactly the right place for me. The woman I'm working with her name is Pooja. She is so laser-focused on getting me better. She watches me work out. If I say, oh, you know, I want to be able to do box jumps. She says, okay. She pulls up the box and we go through the mechanics and we test it out.

00:12:14 And she says, okay, here are the things that you need to be able to do very successfully before you can do a box jump again. And she gives me exercises to do them. It's very much for me. So we'll stop talking about CrossFit and talk about a couple of other examples. What's important here is like every stage of the process is very messaged around.

00:12:33 Here's what we do. Here's why we're perfect for you. And then they deliver on it. So they don't just say that they give one-on-one support and that they will help you get back to your activity. They're laser focused on it. It's so good. They also, I should mention have like a Community Manager who runs the front desk. She is amazing.

00:12:53 One day I went in and they had that little spinny wheel at the front desk and I landed on it's fun. And I landed on Michelle. We'll give you a compliment today. Michelle is like the Community Manager at this physical therapy place, which is tiny with two people. And she gave me the most lovely compliment in the world. And I desperately want to hear her to be a Community Manager to go working space.

00:13:16 But anyway, it delivers. So it messages and it delivers, and I don't want to go anywhere else. I'm not going to cancel. I'm not going to switch. I am in, even though it's a huge pain for me to get to and takes a lot of time in my life, the outcome is worth it. Now, can we always translate that to a coworking space?

00:13:35 Probably not. Probably no one is willing to sit in traffic for an hour and 10 minutes to get to your coworking space. But within reason I think there are things we can learn here. Hey, I just wanted to jump in really quickly before we continue with our discussion. If you're working on opening a co-working space, I want to invite you to join me for my free masterclass three behind the scenes secrets to opening a coworking space.

00:14:02 If you're working on opening a coworking space, I want to share the three decisions that I've seen successful operators make when they're creating their Coworking business. The masterclass is totally free. It's about an hour and include some Q and a. If you'd like to join me, you can register at Everything. Coworking dot com forward slash masterclass. If you already have a coworking space,

00:14:26 I want to make sure you know, about Community Manager, University, Community Manager, University is a training and development platform for community managers. And it can be for owner operators. It has content training resources, templates from day one to general manager. The platform includes many courses that cover the major buckets of the Community Manager role from community management, operations,

00:14:51 sales, and marketing, finance, and leadership. The content is laid out in a graduated learning path. So the Community Manager can identify what content is most relevant to them, depending on their experience and kind of jump in from there. We provide a live brand new training every single month for the Community Manager group. We also host a live Q and a call every single month so that the community managers can work through any challenges that they're having or opportunities get ideas from other community managers build their own peer network.

00:15:26 We also have a private slack group for the group. So if you're interested in learning more, you can go to Everything. Coworking dot com forward slash Community Manager. Another important niche I want to point out is my podcast. If I was talking to you about general business tips, you would never listen to me. You never would've found me. You only listened to me because I apply business tips to Coworking specifically.

00:15:55 And you know that I'm very credible. I owned my own two coworking spaces and more importantly, I work with hundreds of operators. I see their numbers. I see their P and L's, I see their business challenges. I see their wins. I see all the things, you know, that I see the things and know the things that you want to know.

00:16:14 And so I am the perfect person for you. If you're starting or running a coworking space, if I was giving you generic marketing tips, you never would have found me cause I'd be floating in a sea of, for everyone NES again, not everyone needs to have a niche, but just an example that probably will hit home. Okay. So let's talk about a couple of co-working space,

00:16:36 examples that are niche. Let me pull these up. I don't actually know these spaces. I searched for keywords and got them. So I love the idea of a content creator space. So I had a woman were in my Coworking Startup School. Who's in my mentorship group who is working out a content creator package for her space. And I think it's brilliant.

00:17:05 You have to message this very clearly on your website and you have to be all about it and you have to deliver it. If you hide it, no one will find it. And they won't know that this is a specialty. The other thing I love about the content creator package is that you can operate this in a small space. So the woman in my startup school,

00:17:24 small space, which if you listened to my podcast, you know, I think is risky. If you are running a traditional space, but she is niching and creating this high-end package that leverages an open space, Coworking membership with access to studios, for content creation and workshops that she will run. And her, you know, network of experts on content creation.

00:17:54 So she's really, she is in a dense market where there are other Coworking for everyone, Coworking markets or sorry, options. So I love that she's taking this approach. This is not her site. I pulled up. So I Googled content creator, coworking space, and Amper studios. Amper studios. If you're listening high five, and I would love to hear from you,

00:18:16 they are near Miami, all the perks of a membership with studio access and ours included com create that is their call to action at the top of their content greater. If I am a content creator and this gorgeous, you have to come over to YouTube and see this picture, gorgeous sofa, pink suede with some custom wallpaper behind it. And I would like to shoot someone sitting on the couch,

00:18:44 maybe me, how's your creative creativity produce with purpose, enter ampersand studios and breathe in the air of creativity in our vibrant hive of talent, visual and audio productions come to life in our dedicated studios and on our soundstage backed up by top level amenities. When you want to create buzzing content, we've got you covered in these ever-changing times. We understand the need to adapt to new requirements,

00:19:14 challenging budgets, and demanding RFPs. Our new content creator membership is designed to smooth your way as you join in our creative family, all the benefits of a resident membership providing you with Office facility support, plus 15 inclusive hours to access our first class production facilities in an environment that inspires productivity. And then it goes on to say what it includes in vinyl,

00:19:40 backdrops, production studios, spacious seating, layouts for pre and post production preferred rates with partners for rental equipment and more, but did that. If you were a creator, this is exactly what you need. Why would you join anywhere else? And you were driving to this space that is outside of Miami. Very well done. Another thing I want to point out about the messaging.

00:20:04 I think they hired a copywriter and this is serving them very well. Very well. You can write the content on your website. I am sure that I've written most of the content on my website, but it won't be as good as this is. Get a professional copywriter. I'm going to give a shout out to Karen Tate, who is in our Flight Group program.

00:20:25 And Karen just did an update on her website. And I was so inspired that I asked for an intro to her, the company that she worked with, she is, oh, I'm going to blank on her. It'll come back to me on her website. It is fabulous. And I will share it in the show notes. So you can take a look at it.

00:20:44 Her copy writing is so good. Oh, it's the residents, Coworking residents. Hold on the residents coworking space. That's right. You can find it. We'll put it in the, we'll put it in the show notes. Okay. I'm going to pull up one more. This is totally different. They also need a favicon ampersand has a favicon. Okay.

00:21:10 So there's a lot to love on this one. This is called blue house wellness. I would like a more clear name. I really like really clear names, but maybe they were all taken. Cause we all run into that problem. Okay. The first thing I love, I did not actually even look at the copy yet because I didn't want to lose this.

00:21:28 I go to blue. So I Googled mental health, coworking space. And this was the first one that came up. It's an Atlanta. I'm not in Atlanta, but excellent SEO, blue house wellness. So the thing that pops up on their screen is free private practice, finance checklist steps to get your practices finance in order, learn more. And then I'm going to click that.

00:21:52 And it is going to ask me for my email address. It does. And then they're going to mark it to me. I love that. And this is one of the advantages of having a niche space is that you can do that. It's called the lead magnet. You're trying to get folks to sign up for your email list so that you can nurture them and compel them to join your community or your space or whatever it is that you're eventually selling.

00:22:15 It is more challenging to come up with a good lead magnet when you were a for everyone space. But if you are a niche space, lead magnet done, that was an excellent lead magnet. I love that. Okay. So right. I'm on the home screen, a coworking space for mental health professionals build your dream practice. Join. Now I love the join now.

00:22:43 Very bold, not even book a tour, build your dream practice. Join now looking to start a private practice, sign up for our private practice. 1 0 1 course. Now they're selling information in addition to membership, how much do we love this? That's another revenue stream and a way to get people on who we are for therapists for the community. Okay.

00:23:04 For therapists blue house wellness, a coworking space for therapists in Atlanta has everything you need to successfully launch a private therapy practice, continue an existing practice, or just spend time with other therapists. You can hope to host groups, workshops, or continuing education in a comfortable and therapeutic environment with fully furnished offices, click here to learn more or book a tour.

00:23:26 We have photos of how lovely and client friendly the spaces. We have a list of events. The, for the community side says blue house wellness is also dedicated to providing resources to the community, to make access to mental health services, easier, meet all the therapists that are currently a part, our community by clicking here. So they're doing a little bit of lead gen and on their nav bar at the top,

00:23:54 find a therapist. I love that. So they're trying to help their therapists get business. Perfect. So one thing I want to say about niche coworking spaces that is true of my physical therapy place is that I thought, oh, probably everyone's an athlete that goes here. Nope, not the case, plenty of regular people. I consider myself to be an athlete.

00:24:14 By the way, I work out very seriously, five to seven days a week and I do, I can beat. I compete in masters competitions and just for fun, I don't win them, but I consider myself an athlete. I'm very serious about what I do. And I, I do hard things when I work out. So I am perfectly aligned with who they're describing on their website,

00:24:35 back to the physical therapy place. But I am not the only type of person that shows up. So even though they're talking about what they do for athletes specifically, they also get regular people. So you can be a niche space. And if you're not full of your niche, people, you can let other people in. So I see plenty of people who are very clearly,

00:24:56 maybe not in the most active phase of their life in getting physical therapy done. So who knows why they go is the closest place. They got a recommendation for Mike who knows, but they're there. And so it's a mix and it fills in their schedules. So they're not there. Their schedules are not 100% full of their perfect ideal member for their niche coworking space,

00:25:20 but it is full. So think about that too. If you do a new space, you can also let regular people in the messaging, doesn't turn them away, but it attracts like a magnet, the people who are exactly right for you. So I'm going to stop there. I thought there was a couple of fun niche, coworking spaces. If you have a,

00:25:39 each coworking space, let me know, but I have to add one more thing. Part of the reason I've been thinking about the niche space and messaging is that I work with a lot of folks who are starting spaces for women. And here's what I want to encourage you to think about. Is it enough that the space is only for women? Is that the thing that brings females to your space?

00:26:04 Or is it something else? Is it programming? Is it we help future female entrepreneurs start their first business or we help growing entrepreneurs learn how to get funded, or we help women in a sandwich generation manage career, life, kids, parents, all the things and whatever kind of detailed support that it may be. None of those things and maybe all of those things,

00:26:37 but I want, or it may simply be that there's a segment of people that just to go to a place with other women. I am probably not in that segment. I do really love spaces that are designed for women. So I'm very attracted to the wing for its design. I don't really, it could be all men in that space. I just love the design.

00:27:00 I had a woman in my startup school. She is in near Scituate, Massachusetts, the collective co I am also in love with her branding and her design. I've mentioned Lam Coworking in Stockholm and Lindsay, if you're listening, we need to have you on the podcast. I'm going to send you an email. I am also obsessed with their design and their branding.

00:27:23 So I would go there probably regardless of who it was for. So that may be enough, but do think about your messaging, like what is really unique and special that you're creating in that space for women so that you can pull in, you can really attract people versus being sort of for everyone, but taking out half of your potential customers because they're male.

00:27:50 So just, just some thoughts. Okay. So that's it for now. We have some great interviews lined up for the next couple of weeks. Hit the subscribe button. If you have not, if you're thinking about opening a coworking space, you can find our links in the show notes and learn more about the programs that we offer. Thanks for listening.

00:28:10 And I will see you next week. Hey there, thanks for sticking with us through the end of the episode, don't forget to subscribe on your favorite podcast player. And if you were enjoying the podcast, please go leave us a review. It helps other folks find the podcast who are thinking about starting a coworking space or already operating a coworking space and are looking to stay up to speed on tips and trends.

00:28:42 And we started a YouTube channel. We'd love to have you catch us on video. You can join us for podcast, videos, and Q and a videos and other things that we post to the channel. We'd love to see you there.

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