Throughout the year, there are peaks and troughs for flex space demand.
Until all the most repetitive flex space tasks are completely automated, this means that your team goes from having very stressful busy periods to feeling like they may as well watch paint dry.
Below are some great ideas for how to use the quieter time in your flex space to improve the team’s morale, efficiency and content strategies when things pick back up.
🤗 Do a mental health check-in with your team.
The job of running a flex community can be rewarding in so many ways, but the constant juggling of priorities, tasks and relationships can take a toll. Take some time to run through what is causing frustration, pain, or worry for any member of your team.
Your workspace is so much more than just some walls and desks, so looking after the people that make your space come alive is always a great investment. And that includes checking in with yourself.
👂 Connect with members.
Take the time to connect with members. Learn about their business, challenges, and what’s going on in their life. Especially those who come in over the holidays. Add notable info and dates into your CRM, or onto your own calendar.
Nothing delights a member more than being remembered. For example being asked in February how their daughter’s big violin recital went, or asking to see photos of their new pet, or finding a connection for them to a lawyer that may be able to help with something that was worrying them.
👩💻 Review your technology and integrations.
When there’s fewer external requests and the space may be a little quieter, it’s a good time to explore your “tech stuff”. The best time to make improvements on how things work, is when fewer people are using them.
Some Qs you could use to get your started: Are things like door-access and mailrooms setup correctly? Can you find/get all the data you’d like to see about your space and/or business? Can you improve any workflows by tightening integrations between critical systems?
If you’re quickly overwhelmed with this stuff, or you aren’t sure where to start when looking at systems implemented by 3-5 different people over the last couple of years, reach out to our team. Whilst we specialize in solving flex space challenges by connecting their systems, we can also help map out your current setup and make it easier to understand and manage moving forward.
📸 Check & update your member wall.
If you’ve got a member wall (IRL or digital, or both) now’s a good time to check that it’s up-to-date, remove and thank graduated members and make notes on which new members you’d need to add.
Pro-tip: Check in on graduated members’ progress and explore if there’s any shareable news or updates you can turn into website or social media content. Celebrate your members’ wins, even those who’ve move on to their own or other spaces.
🎉 Celebrate your wins.
There’s a lot of challenges with running a coworking or flexible work space. But the impact you have on your team (even if it’s a team of 1, we see you solo-operators), your members and the hyperlocal economy is undeniable.
Struggling to find any wins after such a tough year? Look around. Think about how many individuals have used your space to do work thats important to them. Explore how much members spend on food, drink or retail around your building. Look for friendships, business deals and peer-support networks that have been established or flourished between your walls.
🤔 Bonus: Marketing Planning
The last two points are actually really good for feeding your marketing plan, so we’ll add a bonus tip to start thinking about (or working on) your marketing plan as a good use of “slow-time”.
🥳 Here's to a safe and successful 2023!
A bunch of our team are still working through the holidays to ensure your data stays in-sync across existing and new platforms, and we’ve still got a bunch more content to share (including our next State of Sync stakeholder memo).
But in case you’re taking some well-deserved time off to plan, use the tips above, reflect and/or rest we wanted to quickly wish you all a happy holidays and all the success you deserve in 2023.
– Your support team at Syncaroo
