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10 Tips For Better Writing Winning Coworking Business Plan

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Ana Mayer
10 Tips For Better Writing Winning Coworking Business Plan

Coworking spaces are becoming more and more popular because of how comfortable they are for those entrepreneurs who either want to get a space to work in or require increased mobility. Here are ten tips for better writing a winning coworking business plan.

1. Matching the Right Place

The first thing you should do in your coworking business plan is to explain how to find a place that will fit a company’s team. The problem with some coworking spaces is that they are simply not big enough to fit a middle-sized team of an average company. And if the team can’t fit, they will go and look for a different coworking space that will satisfy their demands.

This is why you need to decide early on what kind of coworking space you want to open. Is it going to be suitable only for freelance workers and will be able to house around twenty to thirty people? Or are you planning to rent it out for small-sized and middle-sized company meetings, conferences, and other kinds of events?

In other words, it is crucial that you decide what size of coworking space you will need to open to suit your particular needs. It’s a difficult decision, but it is necessary to go on with your coworking business plan.

Side note: You can start small and then scale up your coworking brand by branching up and opening new locations.

2. Determine Your Purpose

In the next step, you need to discuss why a coworking space needs a purpose and how to find this purpose. It sounds a bit abstract but determining the coworking space’s purposes (unique coworking brand positioning) is necessary to be able to pinpoint what you need to do next with your plan and who will eventually be your primary target audience.

As mentioned earlier, the people using your coworking space can use it for different aims. For example, a small company might want to host a one-time meeting there, but freelancers might want to visit it regularly to use as their workspace.

Consequently, if you want to have more freelancers and remote workers using your coworking space, you will need to have a different approach to organizing it than you would if you want to have entire companies using your space. At the same time, this decision will not only impact the size of your coworking space but also its design.

3. Keep the Location in Mind

choosing coworking space location on smartphone Google maps

In your next section of the coworking business plan, you will need to write about the importance of location and how to choose the right location for your coworking space. There are some things you want to consider when doing this:

  • Geographical: What country, region, and city will the coworking spaces be located in? Do you want to open a chain of coworking spaces in different cities? Will you expand worldwide?
  • Type of Building: Do you want to open your coworking space in an office building or will it be placed in a shopping and entertainment center? How about opening it in a separate two- or three-floor building?
  • Interior Design: What will the coworking space look like? Is there something unique that will set it apart from other coworking spaces? Are you planning to install any particular technological innovations like a meeting room status display?

4. Research the Industry

Doing proper market research to understand what having a business with coworking spaces means is essential if you really want to be successful with this project. It is truly incredible how many first-time entrepreneurs and business owners underestimate the importance of extensive and detailed research that can actually help them quite a lot.

The biggest argument of those who don’t want to make industry research is that it will waste time and won’t be very useful in the long run. However, the contrary is true. For instance, while doing industry research, you might find out about the latest coworking space trends that you will want to incorporate into your future coworking space.

As a result, you will be way more informed about what you can expect from the coworking space business which could potentially be an unpleasant surprise for you if you get involved while being unprepared.

5. Know Your Target Community

Directly related to doing proper research, knowing your target community is essential to understanding how you will need to construct your coworking space. In addition to that, learning more about your target community (women, geeks, parents, artists, chefs, digital nomads, pet supplies entrepreneurs) will help you get started in the industry and will give you the necessary exposure at the beginning of your journey.

As you have probably understood by now, there are certain things that will determine whether or not your target community will be interested in your coworking space including the location of your space, the interior design, the size, the technological innovations on offer (meeting room booking app), and other features like price, and community events for instance.

Generate recurring revenue and offer exceptional customer experience at your shared or coworking space

6. Write a Financial Plan

financial planning for coworking space business

Though a coworking business plan will have to tackle the majority of the steps required to create a good coworking space, a financial plan should preferably be written separately from the coworking space business plan. This is because it will likely require you to list all the expenses related to building the place and it’s better to keep track of finances separately.

Side note: Implementation of well-performing automated billing and invoicing mechanism at the coworking space will free you from unnecessary complications.

That being said, a financial plan will not only need to have the expenses related to creating the coworking space (construction or rental expenses), but also the expenses you will have on a regular basis once the coworking space will start being used by your clients. These can include such things as:

  • Office supplies
  • Cleaning services
  • Accounting
  • Staff salaries
  • Insurance
  • Food and drinks
  • Etc.

7. Identify the Price Model

It might appear that a financial plan and a price model are the same thing, but that is actually not true. After all, the financial plan is a list of all your expenses and the budget you will need to open and then sustain your coworking space while a price model consists of the way you will be doing business with your coworking space.

You will need to list the prices per hour or day per person for using the coworking space. You can also offer monthly passes or the ability to rent the entire place for some time in case you want to work with small-sized and middle-sized companies that would want to have a meeting or a conference at your place.

If you plan to offer food and drinks, make sure to list the prices for them as well. Any additional offers such as using the scanner or the printer should also be included. In other words, everything that your clients will have to pay for will need to be listed.

8. Build Your Own Team

Building a cohesive team will ensure that everyone managing the coworking space works well with each other and there is no miscommunication or misunderstandings between the members of the team. To build a cohesive team, use these tips:

  • Find the Best Specialists: Look for professionals who will clearly know what they are doing and will be able to perform their jobs at the highest level.
  • Build Your Company Culture: Build a culture where everyone feels valued and nobody feels left out of the process or separate from the team.
  • Provide the Best Working Conditions: To show that you respect your employees, provide them with the best working conditions.

9. Create a Marketing Strategy

coworking business growth graph on paper

A marketing strategy for your coworking space is fundamental because only marketing can truly help you get started and reach the audiences that will be interested in using your coworking space the way you intended it to be used.

Make sure to outline your marketing strategy in your coworking space business plan to have at least a general idea about what you will need to do in terms of promoting your new business. Determine a budget, choose your marketing types (e.g. social media marketing, traditional marketing, digital marketing, etc.), and set some expectations for yourself.

A good marketing strategy can go a long way, so never underestimate its importance and always consult experts on the topic to know which practices are currently the most effective ones. Experiment if you need to, but make sure to choose something in the end and stick to it.

10. Focus on Your Niche

Last but not least, it is much better to focus on one specific niche rather than trying to do everything at once. Turning your coworking space into something else – like solely a conference room, for example – will never be as successful as doing what you did from the beginning and continue to work on it as on a coworking space.

If you chose to work with coworking spaces, then this is what you should continue doing. Yes, sometimes it will be frustrating when you seem to be investing a lot and getting nothing in return, but it is important to be patient and dedicated to what you are doing.

Final Thoughts

All in all, by following these steps one after the other, you will definitely be able to create a better coworking business plan and start managing a coworking space in a more effective and efficient way. Find the right place, know your community, create a strong marketing strategy, and stick to your niche!


The article was written by Ana Mayer, a freelance writer who is a qualified specialist in the field of digital marketing. She writes for Online Writers Rating, different news portals and thematic blogs that helps her stay at the heart of the programming and technology news. Such work gives her the opportunity to write articles on the most relevant topics of today.


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