The GWA is ramping up for their annual conference, to be held this September in Miami, with a workspace operator survey. Make your voice heard on workspace products, services, and profitability. In our relatively young market where limited data is available, your input will help the larger, continuously emerging workspace community to understand the challenges and solutions encountered by operators. 

Many shared workspace and Coworking operators manage all of their finances on their own with only support from an accounting software and the annual consultation of a tax accountant. For some, it’s an inevitable aspect of running a business and can be mastered with monthly repetition. But for most, it’s a painful and tedious process that involves bubble-gumming together difficult-to-acquire reports from multiple applications, manually importing numbers into the invoicing system, and later fixing the inevitable mistakes.

Future-forward operators opt for workspace management platforms that offer one-click high-level and granular reporting capabilities and seamless integration with financial and accounting software. Many operators prefer this simplicity – and it’s certainly appreciated by their tax accountants and members alike.

However you handle your finances, know this: it will have a direct impact on member experience, member retention and your overall success as a business. Whether you have a dedicated financial controller or undertake the finances on your own – and regardless of your method – there are critical, big-picture fundamentals to observe for efficient money management in your shared workspace.

In our continued series of events throughout the US, essensys visited Chicago, a city with a large footprint of shared workspaces. From WorkBetter in the soaring Willis Tower to 25N and LifeWorking in the suburbs, there is no shortage of workspaces to fulfill the growing market demand.

essensys partook in QTLY Chicago, a workspace industry event intended specifically for owners and operators of Coworking and shared workspaces in local markets. Much like the Atlanta event, attendees received a state-of-the-market update, insight into operational reporting and metrics for a profitable workspace business, and a very productive unconference session to share ideas and thoughts on the not-so-easy aspects of running a shared workspace.

Just because it’s the windy city, operators in Chicago aren’t throwing caution to the wind. The operators we met at QTLY are methodical and very measured about everything from ICT and operations to how they engage their community members. While many are still testing out tools and techniques, such as using slack for Community messaging and how to integrate members into community, on the whole Chicago is a mature and serious market with great potential. Much like Atlanta, each workspace seems to create a very niche community.

Here are our key takeaways from Chicago:

Last week essensys took to the road as sponsors of the QTLY Atlanta event. QTLY is a workspace industry event series intended specifically for owners and operators of shared workspaces and collaborative programs in local markets that will also take us to Chicago, San Diego, Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland.

Atlanta is a shared workspace market that boasts a gamut of Coworking flavors, from warehouse workspaces focused on e-commerce businesses to the traditional family-run serviced office. Hosted by JLL, QTLY Atlanta showed a strong turnout of ambitious and enthusiastic operators including Northpoint Executive Suites, Shared Space, Alkaloid Network and Roam Innovative Workplace. Because demand is clearly driving supply in the market, particularly in Atlanta, we found that there wasn’t a sense of competition among operators. That said, Atlanta operators are naturally creating niche workspaces and are inspired to build communities based on their members’ shared interests.

There was animated discussion around member engagement, creating community, helping companies to grow, value-added services, taxes, and human talent acquisition in the shared workspace, among others. Here are our key takeaways from Atlanta.

BY AMANDA FANOUN, MARKETING LEAD, US

essensys co-hosted the first “reverse Coworking” event in New York in collaboration with the U.K. Department for International Trade (DIT), bringing together NYC Coworking operators and U.K. startups for a networking happy hour over British pub fare and beverages. With a mission to promote British trade throughout the world, the U.K. DIT serves as a valuable resource to UK-based startups settling in New York, the largest market of its 90 global locations. There is a host of opportunity for businesses on both sides of the Atlantic but very often the process isn’t as easy as meets the eye.

Managing a Shared Workspace of any sort - business center, incubator, accelerator, or coworking site - is no easy task considering the multiple aspects of the business that operators must juggle. Often, resources are tight and budgets are small, forcing you to focus solely on the minimal required operational tasks. When it comes to dos-and-don’ts to managing and growing your business, we’ve identified nine key steps in a condensed version of our recent 9-Part Lead to Cash series. Master these pillars for a well-oiled money making serviced office operation and, most importantly, happy members. 

2016 was a year of changes and surprises, from unexpected political outcomes across the globe to new and exciting developments within our own shared workspace industry. For essensys, 2016 was a definitive year with milestones that have reconfirmed our past successes and paved the way for what is sure to be an exciting 2017. But we won’t get ahead of ourselves, here’s our reflection upon 2016.