362. How Karen Tait, Founder of The Residence, Created a Thriving Suburban Coworking Space
Resources Mentioned in this Episode:
Everything Coworking Featured Resources:
Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space
TRANSCRIPTION
362. How Karen Tait, Founder of The Residence, Created a Thriving Suburban Coworking Space
00:00:00,"Welcome to the Everything Coworking podcast, where every week I keep you updated on the latest trends and how tos in coworking. I owned and operated coworking spaces for eight years and then served as the executive director of the Global Workspace association for five years. And today I work with hundreds of operators and community managers every month, allowing me to bring you thought provoking operator case studies and inspirational interviews with industry thought leaders to help you confidently stay on top of what's important and what you can apply to your own role in the co working industry."
00:00:43,"I am here with Karen Tait, the founder of the residence co working in the UK. Karen just wanted to tell me about her weekend. Going to see Coldplay in Ireland. You're so fun. Did I just drop that in? I know, slightly. Like, did you go with your. Did the whole family go or. I took my husband and I took my daughter, and my daughter took her best friend who had the treat of a lifetime."
00:01:07,"We bought the tickets over a year ago. Couldn't get them in the UK, so we're like, go to Dublin. Dublin's fun, right? Yeah. So they were off the scale. Friggin amazing. I mean, I bet this is so fun of you, Karen. Yeah, yeah, it was just. Yeah. Yeah. I think everyone should go to a coldplay concert. I think it's like therapy. I think it's like co working. It's just got so much love and good feel and 82,000 people singing their harps out, too."
00:01:43,"Live concerts. I have not a concert in a million years. It's a crazy. So I gotta go. Do you know who's on my list? Pitbull is on my list. I. I'm gonna say I don't know who they are. No. Which is why I tentatively said, do you know who Coldplay is? I totally know who Coldplay is. Yes. Much more. What's the word? I don't know, like, legendary, probably."
00:02:07,"But Pitbull would be fun. Anyway, good for you. Okay, Karen, so much to talk about today. We're going to dive right in. Yeah. And you and I have not caught up in a while, so some of this will be ages. Me too. I know. Okay. You said tea, so I brought tea. Oh, good. Yes, well, I'm having my. My morning coffee, my cappuccino. Anthony. Okay, so. Okay, tell us, like, tell us where in the world you're located and then tell us your co working story."
00:02:36,"How did you. What was the moment? And where did you start in co working. And then we'll work our way along to where you are. So I. My space is in bishops dot for Hertfordshire, which is probably 40 miles outside of London, if you like, and 40 miles equidistance the other way, further north to Cambridge, which are probably, hopefully two pretty well known cities. So that's where we're located."
00:03:05,"So we're in a suburb of the outer regions of London. My journey started back. Well, to go back even further, my career was in investment banking in the early two thousands. So I was at Credit Suisse in equity support and then Morgan Stanley and then Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. So I kind of worked my way around them all and left in, probably hung up my boots in about 2015 and thought, well, I will be a virtual assistant, so I will do admin for small business owners."
00:03:46,"Remote. That would give me a bit more balance, less commute. Yeah, you were. So you were commuting? Yeah, I was commuting. So I commuted every day. Like wheel. Yeah, an hour and a half there, an hour and a half back. And I think that the points at which I had a nanny for the wraparound care for the children when they were little. So at the point she was earning more than me for."
00:04:10,"On an hourly basis. Yeah, yeah. And you broke it down when you took out the cost, the time, the childcare costs, you know, and the VA thing had kind of started to be something I'd heard about. Well, that's my skill set. I can do that remotely. I've got a big black book of well established bankers who have started their own side hustle, whatever. So I started that. And I factored a lot of things into my career change, but never actually factored where I would work."
00:04:43,"I just was like, oh, I just never factored missing the office, if you like. And because my background, as I say, investment banking. You're on floors with two to 3000 people just on a floor. Yeah. You were so looking forward to taking a break from that. Right? You did? Yeah. Like, okay, well, what does that mean? Where are me and my laptop gonna. Gonna settle in? Yeah. Like, I'm like, well, I'll be at home."
00:05:11,"I, you know, children will be at school, my husband's at work, the home, you know, so it's probably great. And like six, maybe twelve months in, might have started to get a bit of isolated on a bit the same day every day, you know, kind of say, you know, no different from the same commute every day. But the missing piece was people and conversations and a bit of fun and a bit of socializing and getting, getting, putting something really nice on and getting to my office and good morning, and how are you?"
00:05:43,"And all those kind of pleasantries? And I started to kind of look around me in my local area, and this is going back to when I finally started the space in its original form in 2017 to not a great deal of choice, if I'm honest. There is a regionably close by Stanst near Stansted Airport, obviously London. Not your vibe. Yeah, London had lots of tourists, and I didn't want to go back to London."
00:06:09,"Of course, you didn't want to commute an hour. And I was kind of prepared to, though, don't get me wrong. Yeah, yeah. Cross my mind briefly. And a couple of those are a couple of other local operators that are more mid sized operations, but predominantly private office, predominantly meeting rooms, you know, co working, if they even considered it, was just a couple of tables shoved over there, that's."
00:06:33,"That's where our co workers go. And then I did try that, and I wasn't really meeting anybody. It was no different from sitting at home on my own, so that vibe wasn't there. So 2017 little barn came up for rent not far from where I lived. Probably a thousand square feet, very old, but traditional beams, floorboards, you know, and it felt like it would provide me with somewhere to work and it would provide a space for other people to work, and it didn't need to."
00:07:07,"I had to test the concept, right? I had to test the concept that co working outside of London in the suburbs. So you knew about co working? Because I'll interview a lot of people who think, you know, even still, when I. When people reach out, it's like they think they invented it. They never heard of it. They had this idea and they're like, oh, it actually exists. You knew it existed."
00:07:27,"You kind of looked around, you're like, I did. Yeah, a little. And that came out of my background, I guess, in investment banking. The clients I dealt with, and also my clients, some of them work with, a couple of them worked at for us. So I'd been, when I went in to work with them, if I did in there, so. And I just was like, why is there nothing around here?"
00:07:48,"Like, why is there not suburban flora? Totally. Yeah. I mean, there is one in Cambridge now, but in 2017, there was Regis or this, and neither were appealing to me. I didn't need a private office, didn't want to sit on my own. And as I say, like, I rented a small barn. The landlord was very sweet. It was. I'll often say to people, the lease was written on the back of a."
00:08:16,"I'm going to say fag packet. I don't know if you'll know that in the US, you know, a very loose. You agree to pay me x on y, no end date, no start date, nada. No one was in charge of the h vac. No, no one was in charge when the boiler went down. No one was in charge of when the mouse came to visit all the things that an old barn give you."
00:08:40,"But that suited me, right, because if it had failed, if it had not flown, been popular, gone, I could say, thanks very much, Bob. We give it a go and he'd be like, no problem, Karen. Great. Yeah. And like, twelve months in, I'm like, we got a lot of people coming. When we wrapped in seating, all open seating, no meeting room, just. We did have a very cute mezzanine for four desks."
00:09:09,"We had a 15 desks on the open floor and one meeting room for ten and a small kitchen downstairs. So whilst it was small, it had pockets and it had charm and it had very british charm. And we just. Up to the point of COVID we had reached capacity. But that's not a great deal of. In today's world of co working, not a great deal of do it validated."
00:09:38,"Oh, there are other people besides me want something like this. Yeah, exactly. And. And you had a website. I mean, you were treating it like a real business. I mean. Yes. Was it like. I mean, you were doing your VA business and this, but you had a website, you were marketing. I mean, you were doing all. Yeah, we were doing all those things. And I think that. But in."
00:10:02,"Back in 2017, its purpose was to provide me a space to work. It wasn't a source of income for me, didn't provide me a living. If now, as I look back now, which I thought it might give me some return, even above, you know, a few hundred pounds if you want. And that was on a good month. Right. But it didn't need to because I had a nine to five job Monday to Friday."
00:10:27,"Gave me a space to work, gave me a space to meet people, talk about my Va business. Yep. My teeth and hear all the reasons not to come here. All the reasons to come, the reasons why people leave, what people want, what they don't want, what they're prepared to pay. And then I think I hooked up with. I think I made a note. I hooked up with yourself, January 2021, which was at the stage of we're going to expand."
00:11:02,"And then obviously, Covid closed us all down, but we already committed to this second location. But then you could see that maybe the way of work was going to change. It sounds cliche, doesn't it, to say it, but it felt like. Well, it's so clear in hindsight. But at the beginning we didn't know anything. Right? Yeah. And it felt like we might never go back fully to the office or the office might tape on different formats or different scenarios."
00:11:34,"So we were committed. So we opened the doors to the second location, which is where I am today in Bishop Stratford. Hartfordshire, August 2021. So we've been operational for three years this. This month. That's crazy. I don't. Yeah. How is that possible? Yeah. Yeah. And we're on a big party. We've got a dj. We got a. Wait, are you party. Having a party? We're throwing it. We're throwing it."
00:12:02,"Okay. Yeah. So fun. I'm interrupting for a second. Are you working on starting a co working space? I often emphasize how important the planning stage is. You've heard me say most unrecoverable issues happen well before you open your doors and they are related to the size of your space, your real estate deal, and a few other things. If you think you are going to pick your favorite co working space and reverse engineer what you think you see happening in there and then pick your own paint colors and your favorite furniture, you are in for a surprise."
00:12:44,"This business is really about making the right fundamental decisions that align with your individual, personal and financial goals. So we want to help you avoid the mistakes that a lot of operators make in planning and launching that can really set you back in terms of time and finances. So we have got your back. We have created a free training to help you really get behind the three key decisions that we think are the most critical for you to get right when you're designing your co working business."
00:13:21,"The model, not the colors, the model. And these insights come from years of operating, designing the model for two different locations and then my work with hundreds of operators as they work on their businesses. So grab your spot in our training class. You can watch it anytime, it's totally on demand. And start your co working journey with confidence and the right strategies in place. You can grab that training at everythingco working.com"
00:13:53,"masterclass. Okay, I'm going to read one of your Google reviews that we can set up. How fabulous this space is and then what an amazing operator Karen is. Okay, so Karen has 104 five star Google reviews, which we'll talk about later, but I want to read this one. I used the residents conference room for a workshop recently and the experience was fantastic. I should use my british. I can't do a british accent."
00:14:18,"My daughter can, but I cannot. Super easy to book through their app or via email. And it's easy to change the date if needed on the day. Laura, community manager, made sure everything was ready for me and took care to make sure my laptop was connected to the screen. Tea and coffee plates etc were provided and they would have organized catering if needed. The environment is beautiful and very professional looking while being friendly and comfortable."
00:14:42,"Everyone is super friendly and welcoming too. I would recommend this co working space to anyone needing either a desk for the day or a space for meetings and workshops. I mean. Yeah. So you. Okay, so three years you've been open. Tell us more about big shift. You kept a smaller space open for a little while, moved into the. Yeah, so we. Yeah. And I'm going to put the link in the show notes because it is beautiful."
00:15:03,"It's a beautiful building, it's beautiful surroundings. You just. You had a vision and it is. I did. I had a vision, yeah. I had a strong vision and I did have help bringing that vision to life in terms of commercial interior designer, you know, aspects of the business that, you know, are not my forte. Design is not my forte. But I had a vision of environments that I'd worked in, in investment banking that were luxurious, you know, marble lifts and food on tap and just beautiful foyers."
00:15:36,"And, you know, I knew what good look like and I didn't want mediocre, so I was prepared to invest the extra money to deliver a product that spoke to all the people who were happy to align with that and weren't looking for mediocre, whatever the word is, do you know what I mean? Like, they weren't looking for just a desk, they were looking for something else. That's London space in the suburbs."
00:16:05,"Right. You don't feel like you're settling just because you're in the suburbs and you're not going to commute. So. Yeah, then if you. That's another barrier you've gotten over for them, that the cost of a day pass with us is cheaper than a ticket to London. So if I'm getting the same vibe in a local environment, it's a no brainer, isn't it? And then, you know, free parking and free coffee and cake and a monitor, like all the barriers that you could justify going to London if you don't need to."
00:16:35,"That's the point. Then hopefully we resolve those for you. Yeah. Yeah. So you did shift into more private offices, meeting rooms. Can you talk about your mix a little bit. Yeah. So here in this space, we're just under 5000 sqft. We have nine private offices, 30 open desks, one meeting room, one conference room for 20, and then various pockets of the space that are given over to what I might call casual seating, like chairs to sit on, places to do a jigsaw, places to have your lunch, breakfast, stools at the bar, a couple of chairs upstairs with the views of the country."
00:17:13,"So like pockets where if you just needed to get away from your desk. And we're quite lucky where we are. We are in the bank of the countryside. So there are horses looking out of the window, cows to the left, horses to the right, green spaces, birds tweeting, beautiful flowers, like lots of uplifting, kind of mentally stimulating things. Okay, so it's been a while since we caught up you were working on your meeting room revenue."
00:17:40,"What's going well today? What's a good source of revenue? I'm curious about your meeting room business. Yeah, I mean, I think the mainstay of our business, obviously, is the private offices. The demand is high, demand keeps coming. They don't churn as quickly. They stay longer, they stay more. All the reasons that you told me that they would, which was that it is a physical need, it's not a fancy wish or it's just I don't really fancy."
00:18:07,"They have team members, they have belongings, they have requirements that require private offices. And it's almost like I have a big waiting list for private offices and they don't leave. So if you ask me, my product mix, which are the bits that I can turn the taps on a bit more as and when, the flexible plans, the monthly flexible plans and the virtual office is something that we've worked on with you or, you know, your previous mailbox challenge."
00:18:36,"So something that now I feel like I have the roadmap to deliver because that's obviously an aspect into the business for revenue where I don't need bums on seats because I don't have many more seats to give them. You know, this has been a quiet period for us. I think it's probably quiet for all operators. August and December. Today already we felt a plethora of emails like, the kids are back, get me back."
00:19:04,"The kids are gone. Yeah. Yay. Can I come in? Can I come in today? Like. So, I think. And what has gone extremely well is our monthly plans. We switched them about twelve months ago to not just be days, but they were also hours. So we've got a flexi five and a flexi ten. Which is five days or ten days, no carryover recurring every month. Right. Super easy, low exit point, 30 days, but gives them access to the space."
00:19:37,"Twenty four seven. And they become a member. Right. They can come in 24/7 got it. Absolutely. You don't get that obviously, with the day pass and the day passes, 835 30. But what we did was we switched it to five days or 40 hours or ten days, 90 hours each day being 8 hours. And what it attracted was the working parent and the person who worked internationally. Early morning, late evenings, they had a side hustle."
00:20:07,"They were doing blogging, that all reasons why they weren't working standard hours. And what it did was it allowed them access to the space without me compromising on security because they were a member of the space and they could use those hours in whatever format they wanted. So maybe you've dropped your children at school, you're at your desk by nine, you're leaving again at 230, you might come back in the evenings."
00:20:33,"All of that was possible with the plan. And the idea was that that would increase monthly revenue that I could account for, like, because I can't account for day passes, because you can't predict that. I can't. That's the right word, I can't predict. And it's not that consistent. We all know. I think that co working has to become a habit. And I think that the day past person comes out of forced need and honestly, you know, come and they absolutely love it."
00:21:06,"That's why it's priced a bit higher, right? Yeah, but we do do a, like the, you call them in the US a punch card here, I call it a loyalty card. So every time you come for a day pass, you get a stamp, five day passes, you get a free one. Everyone loves something free. Yeah. I mean, I love this. I think I remember you thinking about doing this and you're like, what about the hours?"
00:21:31,"And so, I mean, I love, like you're so willing to experiment because so you've given people that mental option, like, okay, I'm good thinking about it in terms of days or hours. And you've said, look, you get 24/7 access, I'm just going to give that to you. And I feel like we used to be like, nope, nope, you can't have, and you still have to think about how you segment your access."
00:21:55,"But if that's the demand that's coming in and that's what they value, okay, fine, let's do it. Yeah. And I didn't want to lose that demand that I was hearing like people saying like, well, I have to go to London in the morning, so I'd love to come to the space in the afternoon, but I don't really want to use a whole day of my credits. So human psychology, it's like, yeah, and humans are so, so odd."
00:22:26,"Some people don't care. Some people like, well, no, I don't really want to use 8 hours because I'm only here for four. And I kind of get that. There should hopefully be enough flexibility in the operation of the space that we can afford that, but that comes with membership, not just commitment. Coming in for an hour for 4 hours. No, you cannot buy 4 hours at a time, but you can commit to getting hourly packages monthly."
00:22:54,"We're exclusive. It's just that this is, I don't want to dilute the offering by just offering an hour or 2 hours here and there. Look, we've made exceptions where people are traveling through and there's always that flexibility with when the owner's on site to be able to say like, someone might just ask for a dedicated desk for a month because the builders are in. Why would I say no?"
00:23:19,"It's possible. It's just that, you know, it's not normally our model, but we can do that and we will do that. And there were always circumstances that drive people out of their homes, not just for their mental health, but for their actual getting the job done right. So. Yeah, yeah. Hey there, I'm jumping in again. This time I'm speaking to those of you that are either getting ready to hire a community manager or who have a community manager and you would like to support their training and development."
00:23:58,"We know how challenging it can be for coworking space operators to create their own training and development material to support their community managers. And this is so important in terms of onboarding new community managers and supporting the growth of your existing community managers. And we're getting towards the end of the year, what a great holiday gift, end of year gift to give to your community manager. So the platform is really around a couple of things."
00:24:29,"One is access to a community of like minded folks. We have a very active slack group with really wonderful questions that are posed every single day. And we find that's one of the biggest values. We have community managers from all over the world, and this is an excellent group of community managers that have invested time and effort into getting better at that role. And they are the kind of folks that you want your community manager to be by and hanging out with, and they know their stuff, or sometimes they don't and they ask questions and we help them out."
00:25:04,"So I'm in the group, we have coaches that are in the group to support them. So we love when they ask questions for things they need help with because the other aspect of the program is really around helping them get resources they need to make their jobs easier and to learn things that they can use in their role to be better at their job. So we provide some done for you resources like Google Business posts, detailed event ideas, et cetera, that they can just kind of grab and go and use."
00:25:36,"And we also provide monthly resources that add to our training library so they can do our certification. And then we have a lot of electives that help them kind of get better at all the things that, that go with the role. So that our community managers wear a lot of hats. So we break our content into industry knowledge for new community managers, community building operations, sales and marketing and leadership."
00:26:04,"So the leadership bucket is great for our more advanced community managers. We also have virtual office and digital mail training and coffee training for anybody who needs to know how to use commercial coffee brewers. So we have some of the I'm just going to give you kind of a sampling of content that we have. So in our community building modules, we have hosting your first member events, building community with budget friendly events, member event swipe files, our sales and marketing modules."
00:26:37,"We have tour training. We have the training on the full co working sales funnel so they understand what that looks like. We have social media planning frameworks. We have. What else do we have? Three simple steps to an effective marketing newsletter. These are just some of our samples. Ooh. These are some of our best utilized topics. Demystifying the process of letting your co working members use your address for their Google Business listing how to close a tour operations modules, how to set up automations how to do a new member onboarding audit, simple ways to use AI to boost your productivity."
00:27:17,"We have over 40 courses in the program, so we cover kind of higher level topics and then we also cover things that are timely like the CMRA updates, Google Business updates, etcetera. So we get together monthly to do official training and we also host a best practice sharing call, which is one of the fan favorites of the group and the Slack group. So if you have any questions at all about the program, don't hesitate to reach out."
00:27:48,"You can learn more and register at everythingco working.com communitymanager now back to our episode. Okay, how about meeting room demand? How has that picked up? Well, I didn't increase the price like you said, no. I did make a differentiator, actually, between the meeting space and the conference room. I did actually up the price. I'm kind of half joking there. What I've decided is that we have two meeting spaces."
00:28:14,"So our biggest conference room is probably 350 sqft. So we're going to subdivide it so that it can be one big conference room or two smaller meeting rooms. And because the waitlist list was so long for private offices, this meeting room will become a private office so the members don't feel like they're losing a resource. Yeah. My member who is, who's getting an into the door is happy."
00:28:40,"It's also freeing up one of my smaller offices because they're moving up into a full person, which every little helps. Right to my bottom line, to not have to sell a lot of meeting room time that can be better utilized as a private office. Yep. I love it. Okay. And since is it the office that you're sitting in now? That's this one's going to become the private office and then the room next door."
00:29:06,"And it will be subdivided professionally with a retractable door. Acoustically sound. It'll both have its h vacs on either side, both have technology on either side. So if, say, like, we host a lot of networking groups. Women in business, the rising tide. Six figured females, predominantly large groups of people. I don't want to lose that because that's also footfall through the space where people come and, oh, gosh, I co working."
00:29:34,"What's co working? I can work here. I'm a solo trainer, I'm a freelancer. I'm here networking. So then we can retract the doors, have it as a big space, but the majority of the people that come for meetings sit between six and eight people. It seems to be the norm. So. Yeah. Nope, I love it. Yeah. Kind of take you saying, what do we have? What do people want more of?"
00:30:01,"Let's do that. Okay. So you have a beautiful zoom background. Can you, can we take a little detour and can you tell us about your rental art program? Yeah, I think that the interior was really important to me, that it was aligned with the brand, but also I felt like the artwork could add an element of something that could be very interchangeable depending on the seasonal, you know, summer, winter, whatever."
00:30:29,"It's a nice talking point. It is one of our members. So Chris White from oh, wow. Art rotate. Who I've known since I opened 2017, does art rental in predominantly London, predominantly high end business. And, you know, and I was like, well, we could do that. Right? And so each piece was chose by our interior designer, Helen, who designed the interiors. And she color matched each piece of artwork with the furniture to, you know, to create this, create the mood."
00:31:01,"And, you know, I think behind me is a great example of. We've got four of these throughout the space. Two are blue, there's another yellow, and there's nothing worse than a blank wall with. Especially when I'm looking at you on Zoom. When you logged in, I was like, oh, my gosh, this is fabulous. It's a real bedroom, and it's beautiful. And people are right. You want them to have a nice background."
00:31:24,"So does that stay up? Does the private office get that, or do you have to move it out? Oh, that is it. That is. I hadn't thought about that. So don't sell right there, Jamie. I know you might. Right? You could sell that as a package. I think if Tammy's listening, I'll be asking her. So. Yeah, no, I love that. I also have me thinking about, like, your positioning."
00:31:45,"You know, you're in the suburbs, but you said, well, I'm going to still be. I'm not going to be mediocre. I'm going to be, you know, high end, beautiful space. And I think, you know, and I want to talk about the cake. Well, tell us about the cake. Yeah. Yeah. So this cake, kind of foreign to the us folks, probably all the british folks are like, yeah, we, of course."
00:32:07,"But I think our most rated word on our reviews is cake. And the cake came about. Well, the cake, the cake scenario and the coffee scenario came around in my head. So I feel like sometimes my biggest competitor is the coffee shop, which was where I used to hang out. Right. So when I didn't find what I needed, I thought, well, I'll coffee shop hop. And, you know, it serves a purpose, and it's."
00:32:31,"It can become expensive, right. If you're there all day, and they probably don't want you there all day, and, you know, and it's not conducive to your best work if you can't find a socket or it's noisy or all those things. So I thought, well, if we have all inclusive pricing that I'm not like, well, the desk is 20, and if you want a coffee, that's two pounds, and if you want a slice of cake, that's two pounds."
00:32:51,"A bit like my easyjet flight over the weekend to island. My daughter still laughed about that. We took one last fall, and she uses that analogy also. Do you really want to bring a bag on, like, oh, well, I'm just going empty handed for four days. Of course I need a bag anyway. So I didn't want, you know, people to have to pay. I didn't want them to not have a cup of coffee because they couldn't afford it."
00:33:18,"Or suddenly becoming. And maybe it's my northern hospitality. I'm from the north of England. Nothing. Everything is done over a cup of tea. Tea is the most. Yeah. You know, we don't. Up north, we don't have people standing on our doorsteps talking in the house. Cup of tea, slice of cake. So it was. It feels like hospitality is welcoming. It's feeding. And then it became a talk, and then it became a talking point, like, what's coming today?"
00:33:48,"And people would be on Zoom calls at 09:00 a.m. on a Monday. Doing the, you know, the water cooler moment set the week up for success. All the things. And the people on the zoom calls all over the world would be going, what cake is it today? They'd be like, it's malteser, or it's biscoffee, or, oh, my favorite. Oh, and I don't like that one. We had that one."
00:34:06,"Don't like that one. And we went whole 18 months without having the same cake. Wow. But also, the idea was also that the space would use local suppliers. That was also important to me. So the cake is made by the lovely Esther, local cake maker. Our coffee comes from a local roaster in Saffron Walden. I, as I say, the artwork. We used a local interior designer. We work with a local accountant."
00:34:37,"The idea is the space is not just somewhere that is commercially successful. It almost feels like that money that is in local communities being moved around and is not being spent in London or Manchester or on Amazon giving it to Jeff. Lovely Jeff. It's being given to the nice guy who set up a roasting coffee business. Who needs this foot in the door. I was currently giving it to Tesco's, which is obviously a big UK food chain in the UK."
00:35:13,"Why would I not? He price matched, and then we upped the prices. We needed more. So it's like giving back. Yeah. But all adding to the experience. And I think. I think this was intentional for you and what you wanted, but also it's kind of aligning with what people want. I mean, you live in a nice suburb outside of London where people have nice home offices. Right? And so I was talking to Kevin Whelan about this recently."
00:35:40,"He was on our other podcast and talking about, like, how he advises newer brands to think about their positioning. It's really hard to be right down the middle. Yeah, no. So you either have to, like, you started with like the barn and we. Very approachable, you know, inexpensive memberships, but, you know, very charming. And then you went for the. We're going to create something really beautiful and unique that is as nice or better than what people have at home, which is pretty nice."
00:36:13,"And so you've got the beautiful artwork, you're very well styled professional designer. The cake, I mean, it's like a step up from what you would have at home or what you would ever create on your own in a suburban, which is so critical because you probably have people walk in who were just like, this is it. Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right. I mean, like in Covid, everybody suddenly had to pray, if they had the space, a really nice home office."
00:36:43,"So to entice them out of there, it had to deliver more than you could get. And the other aspects that we could add on top of the nice home office was equal to have a nice styled office, but also refreshments, which is natural to you. And I hear you talk about it, you're like, well, of course, this is what we do and it happens to be what people want, especially today."
00:37:06,"Yeah. And I mean, when we saw the gas and electric prices go through the roof across the world, you know, don't have your heating on at home. I mean, our heating's on, our air conditioning's on, you know, so those little subtle things that we're delivering, which we have to deliver anyway to keep the lights on is, you know, saying, you know, we're good value for money. We're not going to try and upsell you at every point, you know, because when we first opened in Bishop Stratford, you know, I was mindful."
00:37:40,"We could charge for printing, we could charge scanning, we could charge for the coffee, we could, you know, there were lots of layers where we could have increased margin, but just didn't sit with me. It just was like if I was that user, I might think twice about the second cup of coffee and it would equally. Then I could easily say, well, I could go to Costa's then and have the coffee and pay for the coffee."
00:38:05,"I'm paying for the coffee with you. I wanted, again, to remove the next barrier to excuses not to use the residents. Yeah, if that makes sense. It would completely make sense. It's just like the hours calculation, right? It's like the things that get in people's way can be really funny. And it's like, right. You're just like, I don't want them to even be thinking about it. Like, oh, I have to pay for my second cup of coffee here."
00:38:31,"And that becomes like a little nagging. Like, just remove all of that. No, I think it's really smart. So you're in a suburban location. How do most of your members find you? I think word of mouth, our socials, Google my business, because when you do do co working in Bishop Stortford, co working Hertfordshire, whatever that search term might be, if you are aware, obviously, what co working is, we come up quite nicely."
00:39:01,"Your 104 Google reviews show up. Yeah. It's a pretty impressive number. Especially because. Why do you tell me about the putting effort into that? Because you do come up first. You could get a little lazy about that. How do you get to 104? We were very intentional, or I was, or now Laura is from the start, in that I know that many of us will choose a holiday, choose a cardinal, choose something and validate it externally by someone else."
00:39:34,"And I think that validation out of the customer's mouth carries a lot of weight over my mouth. I can tell you I've got all the vibe going on here. I can tell you I've got all the community and all the latest pop songs and the best artwork in the art. And if I rock up as a user and it is soulless and lacking in vibe and where all these people you promised me, I'm just going to feel you've been disingenuous."
00:40:07,"And that's, for me, where the reviews felt like they could be really a good driver to validate what we're saying, because I'm always going to be biased and unequally. People were just so keen to leave reviews, like, felt like they really wanted to tell everybody about this amazing co working space they found in their local community and that they needed the people to come and they needed other people to experience it."
00:40:32,"Not just the productivity, but the transformations in their business and how their business has thrived by using, if not this co working space, any co working space. And I think people have been really, really generous. You know, we've never bribed anybody, we've never offered money. We all absolutely know. It's just been just. Yeah, people feel like. I definitely view it so amazing, you know, and there are times when we'll, you know, we'll ask."
00:41:06,"I think two or three great reviews every month means that, you know, it's kept fresh. I do try and update the Google my business on a consistent basis. New offers new pitches, new interactions. I think it pays to do that. You know, this. We encourage that through our community manager program and provide templates and all those things, but we still see people who don't, you know, don't do it."
00:41:34,"I also think it's a great defense mechanism because you may get competitors right. And then when that search happens, like, oh, 100 plus five star reviews. So yes, they'll probably tour the other location, but it's also, and related to that, you also have invested over time in your website and the content, usability, SEO. Can you just talk a little bit about why that was important to you? Well, weirdly enough, Jamie, since we last spoke, I'm doing a website rebranded, not the brand itself, but the overhaul of the website."
00:42:14,"I felt like the first iteration we had done was done during the build out phase of the actual space and I didn't give it enough time to really reflect our personality. What happens here. It felt it just needed to be elevated. And the reason for that is it's expansion. And I, as you've just said about you can get lazy with your list of your reviews. Our website now needs to work a lot harder as we look to expand because we're well known in this local area and if we move into other areas, our website is going to have to bring us traffic and everything needs to be aligned."
00:42:58,"You know, the new Google Analytics with my Facebook, with my, all the platforms and it also, I want the content to be aligned with the Donald Miller and the brand story and the positioning and the guide and the customer and the problem and the solution and all the things. And we'll create a very bespoke framework for that. And that should launch hopefully in the next month. Again, one of the web developers in the building, the content writers in the building."
00:43:33,"So we're using in house, in house resources and they really get you. I mean it's not everyone has that or should use the folks in the building. I've seen that not go well. Yeah, it's beautiful when you can do that. And they really deeply understand your brand. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Camilla, my content writer I've worked with for seven years, so that was a no brainer book. But I."
00:43:57,"More recent addition, Kelly's a web developer and I loved what she did and I knew that if we were going to elevate and change, then she was the person to do it. And like you say, like we've had lots of meetings, we've had lots of, we're all on the same page and we trialled it with a virtual office landing page as part of your challenge. And it was just beautiful, you know?"
00:44:21,"Is that on your site now? No, it's not there. Sorry. Okay. You have to tell me when everything's to make it live. Okay. Yeah. So that's my procrastination. But it just felt like a more fraction of who we are. Fun, friendly. Yeah, I love that. And it's so much work to update a website. Okay, so talk about your expansion plans. What are you. What, what are you working on?"
00:44:51,"Well, I think if we. If we go back two years, conversations were hard to have. I didn't even get past the brokers in the UK, you know, flex operator landlord doesn't want to speak to you. Like, very. And then I felt like everything I've learned over the last seven years is that, like, we need to do a traditional lease model on this building to prove that our concept works, that our model works, that we know our model and our revenues and what we need to do to break even, et cetera, et cetera."
00:45:25,"So to do a very traditional lease, you know, seven year, five year exit is what we need today. And that has opened the doors now to conversations with other landlords who have got vacant buildings or building buildings or building developments. And I. It's been a bit like buses recently that they're all just. Opportunities have just come our way and we're deep into conversations with two and that we've been very cautious."
00:45:59,"I don't want to. I think it's very easy to get over excited that because you filled a space, you know, that in this space in bishops tortured, we had a Runway of 18 months to get to 90% capacity and we did it in eight months of opening. So it's easy to get carried away and go, we could do that on the next building. But everything. And we've looked at a lot of potential sites that are just not ticked enough boxes and have been very clear about what I won't compromise on."
00:46:31,"And one of them is location. One of them is the look in terms of the structure itself. I didn't want. You have a high bar because you. Your building is beautiful. Yeah, you do. Yeah. And I didn't want a soulless office block in the middle of a commercial park. Just. And parking is something I won't compromise on. Not having it, I think, is a big barrier for people to overcome because if they're thinking day passes and then parking on top and then the agro of parking and finding spots for all those things, we've been very cautious and very choosy."
00:47:11,"We've turned down a couple of deals, but that's actually the right reasons because we've ran the models, ran the pro formas. And you can pretend something, as you always say, Jamie, the one thing you can't fix is the deal that you do even before you open the doors. Yes. The interior, the furniture, to some extent, some walls, perhaps fixable, but deal structures and profitability on the actual space that you're going to lease."
00:47:43,"If you haven't got that right, then super difficult. Super, super difficult because you don't have enough floor placed floor plate, rather, to sell enough product to pay the bills. Erin, you could teach. Now you've got it. I love it. Well, then one's the best, right? I genuinely did. It's an absolute honor to be on your podcast because you were the first person I came across when I started to think about co working."
00:48:12,"And I didn't quite find a voice in the UK at the time. And I listened and I absorbed and I learned and I read some more and I attended conferences at juicy and I built some relationships and I asked them questions that I was too afraid to ask in public because it felt like I should know. But why would I know some of the things that I've just."
00:48:43,"And now I can pass those things on to other people. And you know it for yourself too, right? Like, you hearing it is one thing and kind of believing it, but I just hear you talking like, oh, she really, like, she knows it through experience and through the numbers and, you know, you've done all the things, you know, marketing, you've hired a community manager, you've run a bunch of pro formas and thought about deal."
00:49:07,"Yeah. You really, really know it. Are you going to juicy in October? I think I probably will. I went to juicy in Manchester and that was just recent. Yes. So, like three months ago. So I was again honored to ask to be on a panel so, on what makes, you know, local co working special with other speakers. And I could talk about it all day because it's not a job, it's a passion."
00:49:34,"So. And of course, it does earn me a living. But you don't feel like you're doing a day's work when you're. When you love it. Yeah, there, there must be days. I have days. Well, yeah, there are days. And then I wake up the next day and I feel the same way. I think it's so amazing to be able to do this work and be in an industry."
00:49:56,"Yeah. That you love and that adds so much meaning to people. I mean, your Google reviews you had. You also, I just briefly want to touch on your LinkedIn strategy. You post on LinkedIn and you get. You had a member recently, like an ode to Karen and the residents. So amazing. Out of nowhere. Yeah, I remember you were like, how about, you know, social and LinkedIn? Can you just talk about kind of your commitment to spending time there?"
00:50:23,"And so I tend to use Instagram and Facebook, as, you know, some informative posts, stories, some fun behind the scenes. Which dog, which cake, which person, which dogs always features super high. People always tag us with their dogs, tag us with eating their cake. And so the stories are a lot of fun. But I use LinkedIn to build my own authority in this co working industry. So I pivoted away from selling on LinkedIn in terms of, like, my own thoughts around the industry and what I've experienced and commenting other people's staff, reading other people's stuff, sharing other people's stuff."
00:51:06,"So to try and which has only come about by the hire of Laura, moving me out of operations into the next phase of strategic growth and using my voice to amplify local co working, of which there's still not enough of, you know, I hear it all the time. I wish there was one in Norwich and I wish there was one here. I wish there was one there. And I want to maybe try and amplify that."
00:51:35,"It is possible for if you're sitting, it is possible to bootstrap it, which we have done. You know, there's no investors here, there's, you know, we're not funded. It's not easy. I'm not going to lie and say everyone should do it. It's not for the faint hearted, but it's equally possible to do it with as long as you stay true and authentic to yourself and you are who you say you are and you will do what you say you will do."
00:52:06,"And that's, you know, I think one of the. The biggest, I think relationships in your business, and that includes my business and your business, Jamie, and any relationships are the backbone of everything that happens in the world. If you can listen and ask questions and be inspired. And I try to use those relationships on LinkedIn to be a force for good. There's a lot of good in the world."
00:52:39,"We don't often shout about the good things that go on in the world, and there's a lot of. It's easy to get sucked into doom and gloom. And that goes especially for the solopreneur. And the small business owner will probably spend a lot of time in their own head telling themselves they can't do it, they're not capable, they don't have the know how. And you come in here and inject yourself, not physically, obviously, with a little bit of positivity, you know, and some tea and everything better."
00:53:10,"Everything's better. You could come in here, couldn't you? You've lost your major client. What are we going to do? And I've seen it happen time and time again, and we've seen people in the space who have got funded after five years of trying, and they just want to bounce in here and celebrate. And we want to pick you up when you're down, celebrate when you're high, go on the journey with you, because it is a journey and we're here for all of it."
00:53:37,"Tears, support. We have a very lively WhatsApp group which radiates between banter, Mickey taking, as we call it in the UK, job opportunities, collaborations, cries for help. And that's what co working can do for you as a person, as an individual. And I think that I obviously have children that are about to enter the world of work, and I think that we're all suffering from elements of loneliness and isolation."
00:54:09,"And I'm not sure that fully remote working is conducive to good mental health, of which also we have a crisis. So anything that can be done to keep people's spirits high for me, is a driving force. And I did actually say that at the TUC conference that money was not my motivator, of which there were sharp intakes of breath from the audience. Well, I would like to say, on behalf of the entire co working industry, if money was our real true motivator, we'd all be in investment banking, not gigs."
00:54:45,"Yeah. Yes. I get my energy levels from seeing people use the space exactly how I intended. I get my energy from people using the space and talking about the space, posting on LinkedIn without asking them to reiterate what they feel is fantastic. And I can't buy that. You can't buy that authenticity in play. But of course, we have to keep the lights on and so we do have to keep our eye on the numbers and the data and tweak when needed."
00:55:21,"Wherever, you know, parts of this building are not utilized, like the small meeting room or. We used to have a high bench. No one ever settled it. It was pretty. You rubbed the bench. I know, yeah. Yeah. The bench is now in storage. Yeah. Right. Maybe for the next location. Well, yeah. Okay. Karen, we are out of time. We might have to do a part two because I'd love to."
00:55:47,"So many more I need updates on. Thank you so much for taking the time and sharing your story. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you like what you heard, tell a friend, hit that subscribe button and leave us a rating and review. If you'd like to learn more about our education and coaching programs, head over to everythingcoworking.com."
00:56:11,"we'll see you next week."
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