Are you worried about the competition?

Do you have competitors that could easily be interchanged with your coworking space?

If so, you aren’t being bold enough with your positioning. You’re trying to play it safe and appeal to everyone, which is risky.

Take it from someone who knows… positioning yourself in a way that lets people “pigeonhole” you is frightening.

It feels extremely limiting. Why not appeal to everyone?

The truth is, it’s good business. Nobody has the resources to serve everyone well. And even if you did, people wouldn’t believe it.

Coworking—to me—is all about serving people who work, in a community setting.

But people work very differently. Start-ups, freelancers, consultants, professional service providers, and remote corporate teams all have very different needs.

At a glance, it looks like they need the same things: four walls, some furniture, access to meeting rooms, and fast WiFi.

But when you dig deeper, the details begin to diverge.

Some people need a quiet environment, and some like to work where there’s a “buzz” in the air.

Some people need to present themselves as established corporate professionals, while others prefer to work in a young, hip, and creative setting.

In many cases, the groups—as defined by their needs, not just their identity—don’t mix.

The better you know your ideal members, the better you can serve them. And the better you can serve them, the more specific you can be in your marketing about how you do that.

The more specific you can be in your marketing about how are actually better for your ideal members, the more powerful your marketing will be.

The more powerful your marketing is, the more members you have. And, as a kicker, they’ll even stay longer because the service is unmatched.

Very often it comes down to the details. Knowing how many phone booths to put into your limited space or whether to create a podcast studio, for example, comes down to the needs of your ideal members.

If you try to appeal to everyone, you’ll waste resources on things that don’t matter, or you won’t offer things that actually do matter to any one specific group. You become mediocre to everyone.

These things require placing bets (like all strategies do). And when you place your bets on servicing your ideal members better than anyone else, you become one of a kind.

You build a reputation and become incomparable. Your competition fades away. You enter into a league of your own.

Not for everyone, but for your ideal members. But they’re the only people who matter.

Make your competition irrelevant.

 

Related: How to Make Your Coworking Space Stand Out in a Competitive Market