{"id":620,"date":"2012-02-23T17:23:12","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T17:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austingcuclegacysite.wpengine.comm\/?p=620"},"modified":"2012-02-23T17:23:12","modified_gmt":"2012-02-23T17:23:12","slug":"guest-blogger-don-ball-shares-lessons-from-2-years-in-the-coworking-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gcuclegacysite.wpengine.com\/guest-blogger-don-ball-shares-lessons-from-2-years-in-the-coworking-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Blogger, Don Ball, shares: Lessons From 2 years in the Coworking Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest blogger and GCUC speaker, Don Ball, shares the lessons he has learned from being in the Coworking business with CoCo<\/a> for two years. He will be participating on the “Ask a Coworking Owner” panel at GCUC.<\/em><\/p>\n

We didn’t make a big deal of it, but on January 4th we celebrated CoCo’s 2nd anniversary. That is, if you consider a simple handshake a celebration. (We seem to have trouble stopping to admire the view \u2013 there’s just too much to get done!)<\/p>\n

In an nutshell, we opened our first space in Lowertown St. Paul in January 2010. Then, last July, we opened a space in Minneapolis, on the trading floor of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Looking back, it would have been easier two years ago to open a greasy spoon or a coffee shop, something for which people already had a demonstrated need. But in fact very few people in our region woke up on the morning of 1\/4\/10 with a coworking need. That’s to say that we had to create the local market coworking. From day one, we had to do a lot to prime the pump, from meetups to breakfasts, speakers \u2013 you name it we tried it. It didn’t help that construction on a major light rail project began right in front of our building \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 on 1\/4\/10.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, optimism prevailed. And so did the patience of our early members, who endured ear- and bone-shattering construction without so much as a wince. We clearly benefited in those early days from the good will of so many of our friends, who were strong vocal supporters. Seriously, without the help of so many people, who talked us up, let us come and speak at events, agreed to bring their events to our humble space, helped us brainstorm new ideas \u2013 actually put in their hard-earned shekels to become members! \u2013 I’d be writing about an interesting experiment that didn’t quite take off.<\/p>\n

But take off it has. Today the CoCo community is bustling, with a membership in the hundreds, and it continues to grow every day. If the greatest challenge in 2010 was just getting people to join, today it’s making sure that the CoCo experience remains meaningful for whomever chooses to join. More on that later.<\/p>\n

So, what have we learned in two years?<\/p>\n