Help me pitch an idea (*Collaborative workspaces)

[Moe]

Background:
I work from home.
I'm a social person.
I like the freedom of working from home, but sometimes it gets lonely.  And I'm spending way too much money going to coffee houses to "see people" (and get shitty WiFi - Starbucks/Caribou, I'M LOOKING AT YOU!)

There are various locations here in the cities that have the collaborative workspace model (yay ImpactHUB/London - you definitely found a need!). They effectively rent spaces that are public (in that it's not an office, it's pretty much a table that is not yours) to the collaborative workspace, but you're engaged with various other professionals who also don't have a unique office location.  The beauty of these places is that there's a lot of networking and it's been demonstrated that it builds ideas/catalyzes innovation because think of the power that could come from a person in a totally different career/profession that you have thinking through your challenge.

There's also various events hosted by the collaborative workspace that fuels that professional/community based partnerships that are important in my line of work.

Of course, this cost money.  My work likes me working remote because duh, my overhead cost is minimal.  The offices are not that much imo, so little that I have been thinking of paying it out of pocket (not that I'd tell them this).  But I have to present a case for it.

My case is 
1) I'll have access to a wide network of professionals that can be effective connectors in my industry
2) I will have previews of events that are important in my field (again, via water cooler conversations (this is key, there's a bunch of really important events where I could have tapped to crucial professionals that can help me penetrate a niche market)
3) I will be happier (ok, this last one is clearly not the way I'll sell it, but I know that I will be more effective). 

I'm not asking for full days, I'm thinking that I'll start to "rent" the space for 2-3 days a week.  But that's just details.

So if you've leveraged your position from a remote home office to this, or are a manager with remote people and can give me tips on how best to sell this, I'm all ears.

[Deleted]

Um...you should have just emailed me The place we met actually does get fabulous Wi-Fi, but dude, their hot chocolates are $4.75. Grrrr...

We have literally co-work space surfed around the bay area, for free, for the past several months, by doing "trial" days and focusing on new locations who are trying to attact members.  It gets tedious as we have to commute all over the place...but, free.  We actually think we need to create a gartner magic quadrant to compile all our pro/con lists from each place we've used. The events (uh - the wine part), are the best!!

There is also a place called Hacker Dojo that is community based and free all the time - mainly aimed at the super nerds (said with love!) and you pay $100 if you want a key/24 hour access.  That one is next on our list to try.

Saying that, I guess we are lucky because there are an abundance of options...

Anyway, to actually answer your question, I'm not sure I can, as I'm clearly trying to indirectly convince you, once AGAIN, to MOVE HERE.  In my  experience at a large Corporate level, this only worked if were over 10-20 employees in a particular area and no satellite sales office.

[papie]

Apr 18, 2014 17:56:18 GMT -5 Que? said:

My H and I shared a space like this when we were both freelancing. It was a bunch of designers, film nerds and copywriters (writing their novels in their spare time, natch'. Nobody got a damn thing done and there was a lot of drinking and a lot of pot.
Eat: I realize this isn't helpful.

I have a feeling moe needs to pitch this differently, lol

[lime]

How much is the space monthly?

Remind me what you do? Are you a writer?

[underwaterrhymes]

Moe- We need to talk about this. I will send you an email. (I worked in a space like this for a few months and it was REALLY awesome and successful.) If you want, I can put you in touch with the guys that started it. They work in our industry and would be, I'm sure, really excited to talk to you about it.

[angelaa73]

:makes mental note to start selling hot cocoa for $3.75 to fields:

[bittybomb]

My husband was a manager who managed an entire team working from home.  One of the biggest issues he had was making sure his people were actually working and because he too was working from home he knew that unless a person is pretty disciplined with a dedicated separate office, it was hard to stay focused on "work" versus home and leisure.  Could you sell it as a more structured way for dedicated work time to help keep focused?  Obviously spun in a way that wouldn't make it seem like you're unfocused without it.