Why The Skiff still exists in 2018
The Skiff will be ten years old in November. It’s one of a growing number coworking places in Brighton, offering members a welcome alternative to the isolation of working from home.
However, while I very much hope that Brighton still offers such a wide choice of working environments in another ten years, the harsh reality is that not every coworking space will survive.
When The Skiff first opened its doors in 2008 there were 160 coworking spaces around the world, now there are over 13,800. Add to this the fact that 40% of coworking operators plan to open at least one more location in the coming year.
To put this into context, WeWork, a global coworking chain, opened its first space two years after The Skiff. It now has a valuation of over $20 billion. Some might say we missed an opportunity. I think we’ve dodged a bullet…
The commoditisation of coworking
Coworking spaces have become an industry much like the restaurant industry. They come in all shapes and sizes, and provide a broad range of experiences. And, sadly, most will fail within three years. Too many small independent coworking spaces have failed to make enough for their owners to keep going. The money lies in creating chains, owning property, hiring great staff and doing deals at scale. And so that’s the risky high-growth path that the founders of new spaces like WeWork feel forced to take. I worry about how many of today’s small, independent coworking spaces will still be here in a few years.
The Skiff is a single premises coworking space, our biggest cost (by far) is rent, we have no full-time staff, we have less revenue than a three-person digital agency, and we have the office costs of a 60 person agency.
We don’t have any ambitions to grow beyond our current size in terms of profits, employees, locations or square footage.
So why does The Skiff still exist?
The Skiff exists in 2018 because 186 human beings want it to continue to exist. They choose to participate in a community of like-minded individuals. Many of them regularly work from the workspace we all share. All of them pay membership fees to make The Skiff financially sustainable.
It certainly helps that Skiff Mates (as members call themselves) have the support of businesses that give them the freedom to work independently. But The Skiff doesn’t depend on deals with teams and corporations. More than 90% of our revenue comes as a result of the personal choices of our individual members.
Let’s dig a little deeper into the numbers:
- 52% of Skiff Mates choose to work from The Skiff’s workspace one to three days a week.
- 29% of Skiff Mates pay for a membership to The Skiff, even when they don’t need workspace.
- 89% of members and 69% of revenue comes from people who don’t want full-time dedicated desk space.
So why do they all want The Skiff to continue to exist?
1. After joining The Skiff, members report that they feel significantly less isolated.
Participating in online communities and attending occasional meetups isn’t a substitute for regular real-world interaction with others.
Anyone who’s spent a serious amount of time working from home alone has felt some degree of social and professional isolation. That feeling of loneliness can get so bad that you’ll never forget it.
We have members who have been happily working in traditional offices with teams of their own for years. But they still want to keep a Skiff membership. We have members who have moved as far away as India, Australia and California and they still want to keep a Skiff membership. They want to be sure that The Skiff will be there for them if/when their circumstances change. They know it takes time to build a community around you where everybody knows your name. And they know The Skiff only has a finite amount of space.
2. Skiff Mates say The Skiff has improved their work/life balance.
Leaving the house and simply working in a different space can make you more productive but it takes more than that to make you more comfortable.
It’s the little things that make a big difference to work/life balance. Your friends and family don’t want their time with you to be filled with conversations about work. Your customers, clients, colleagues and employees aren’t the best people to open up to when you need to.
For many of us our fellow Skiff Mates fill a gap between our social and professional lives. Relationships with them are often perfectly positioned to develop into close friendships and result in the most rewarding collaborations.
3. Skiff Mates say being a member of The Skiff helped them feel part of a community.
On paper The Skiff is a supplier to its members businesses. But few Skiff Mates feel like their relationship with The Skiff is simple trade of cash for space. Skiff Mates contribute far more than cash to The Skiff and they get back far more than space in return.
The Skiff’s best events, activities and space improvements all came from members. Members make the best coffee, give the best tours and provide the best introductions to new members.
For Skiff Mates The Skiff provides a perfect balance of homeliness and professionalism. It feels like their own space, it’s somewhere they can do their best work. It’s a place where they’re surrounded by people who also want to be there — out of their own personal choice.
For some coworking chains “community” is a carefully choreographed feature. A way to attract an extra few bums on seats to sit in otherwise wasted spaces. Those Coworking chains are in the business of extracting as much value as possible out of every square foot of space. Their core customers are insular, profit-hungry, fast-growing teams that want shiny offices to impress their clients and prospective employees.
The Skiff continues to exist for the same reason independent coffee shops, pubs and restaurants exist alongside Starbucks, Wetherspoons and Wagamama. Skiff Mates want The Skiff to exist because they feel a sense of belonging here that they’ve not been able to find anywhere else.
The Skiff provides Skiff Mates with a real escape from the isolation of working from home alone. It’s not a soulless artificial workspace away from home where they continue to feel isolated. The Skiff’s a community at its heart that has chosen to cover the costs of a workspace and clubhouse together.
But that’s not the whole story. In my next post I’ll share who owns The Skiff and how we’re changing that in 2018.
Do you know anyone who works from home? Please point them in the direction of our Happier Homeworking course. Over 500 freelancers and independent workers have subscribed. It provides 9 FREE lessons on how to keep cabin fever at bay (without joining The Skiff):
