Money Matters, or Why You Should Attend the GCUC Finance Workshop

Coworking spaces can and should make money.

There are many reasons to open a coworking space, but the survival of all of them is subject to one and only thing: profit. If there is no profit you will not have a sustainable coworking space. Without profit there will be a time where you will not be able to pay your expenses and you will have to close, with an unfulfilled dream and without being able to continue providing the service you’ve fought so much for.Profit is not only a question of survival. Having more money that you spend means being able to grow, to hire more people, to give better service, to add even more value to the coworkers. Profit is good for coworking spaces, just like it is for any other business.

Sometimes when entrepreneurs throw themselves into a new business they don’t always know what matters the most about it. They lack knowledge about the numbers that matter: the main drivers of revenue and cost, their importance, and how they affect the different parts of the business. Revenue, expenses, cash in the bank account… they all have a reason and an impact in the financial success of a coworking space, but so do the different revenue models, how you split your investments, the type of coworking plans you have,  etc. Your financial choices have an impact in the marketing, the community, your space, …

Understanding the foundation of a coworking space is not that difficult. The calculations to understand the profitability of the business are easy. They can be done in a piece of paper. Helping ourselves with a spreadsheet will give us better insight.

How will the workshop work?

This is a practical workshop, with a lot of questions and answers coming from the speaker and the audience. The revenue and expense model will be built step by step with two objectives in mind: to have a good knowledge of the finance structure of a coworking space, and to have a working spreadsheet to use for your own space calculations.

What will you learn?

You will leave this practical workshop with a better knowledge of your business and some tools, tips, and ideas to turn your coworking space into a profitable success.These are some of the key points:

• What are the main building blocks of a coworking business.
• Which are the numbers that matter the most.
• Revenue models and what to take into consideration for your business plan.
• How do the different kind of coworking memberships affect the finances, the community, and the space.
• How to make the basic calculations to understand the potential for profitability of a space.
• Solutions to common financial issues.
• How to use a spreadsheet to build a basic financial model of a coworking space.
• That cash matter more than any number.

Who should attend?

This workshop is for those that are thinking about opening a coworking space, in the process of opening one, have recently opened one, or are strugling to find out a path to profitability.What background or preparation work needs to be done in advance in order to get the most out of the workshopNone, but the more that you think about the business beforehand the better and more advanced questions you will have.

If you have never used a spreadsheet, please go through a basic tutorial before the workshop, you will be able to follow up better and learn more. Here are a free Excel course, a video tutorial for Open Office / Libre Office,  and introduction to Apple Numbers. YouTube is full of interesting videos to help you learn.

What should I bring with me?
Bring a computer or tablet with a spreadsheet program in it (any program will do: Libre Office, Open Office, Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, etc.)

OR

Bring something to take notes.

Can I record the talk?

Yes, you can record the talk if you want to, but when you publish it (non commercial use only) you have to add the following creative commons license: Non comercial CC share-alike http://twitter.com/ramonsuarez http://ramonsuarez.com

Who is leading the workshop?

Ramon Suarez is the founder of the Betacowork coworking space in Brussels, a hub for entrepreneurs and professionals. He is the author of the Coworking Handbook (a guide for coworking space operators) and is one of the founding members of the Startup Europe Coworking Assembly.Ramon actively promotes tech startups in Belgium as a board member of Betagroup (the largest tech network with 7000 members), Startups.be (an umbrella organization that brings together the entities that help tech entrepreneurs in Belgium), and Global Entrepreneurship Week Belgium (a week to celebrate and promote entrepreneurship).He speaks regularly at international conferences, namely about coworking and tech entrepreneurship. Ramon also blogs as the correspondent of Loogic, the leading Spanish blog about web entrepreneurship. He has 15 years experience in marketing and communication and is among the top 10 Twitter tech influencers in the country according to DataNews.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/ramonsuarez
Blog: http://ramonsuarez.com
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ramonsuarez
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/1/103579379127741318104
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ramonsuarezv

 

That’s fantastic! How do I sign up?
Get your tickets here!