Too Much Meat Still Left on the Bone

Part of the Coworking Confidential Series: Saying the parts unknown out loud

Everyone in flex sells space.
That’s the easy part.

The hard part is making every square metre earn its keep.
Most pretend they are. They aren’t.

You can feel it on a Tuesday afternoon.
The café staff start cleaning early.
The echo on the stairs.
That quiet sense the place should be busier than it is.

Cafés that die off by 10 a.m. and only pick up again at the lunch rush.
Meeting rooms that get one decent booking and call it a day.
Coworking floors that fade in the later week.
Offices carrying the weight for every lazy idea that doesn’t pull.

We hold onto ADR like a comfort blanket, convincing ourselves the number means control.

I’ve lost count how many times I’ve been awake at three in the morning, staring at the ceiling, adding and subtracting deal pipelines in my head, watching how they bend the magic number.

Meanwhile the monster under the bed - the empty café, the dead meeting rooms, the quiet afternoons - keeps growing teeth.

There’s still too much meat left on the bone.

Revenue, relevance, reputation, all sitting there waiting for someone hungrier to find it.

Offices pay the rent, sure.
But the operators worth their salt know that’s not where the profit lives.
The café should fund the events.
The events should drive the meeting rooms.
The meeting rooms should feed coworking.
Coworking should graduate people into offices.
That’s the chain. That’s the ecosystem.
If one link breaks, the whole thing runs aground

The great operators make it look easy.
It isn’t.

Ancillary revenue isn’t a bonus.
It’s the difference between a business that performs and one that just survives.
It pays for the people who actually give a shit.
It’s the buffer when renewals stall.
It’s the reason the doors stay open when the numbers dip.

Every operator loves to say they’re fully let.
But look closer.
How many hours are you really selling?
How much of your building is actually working?
If your café’s quiet, your meeting rooms empty, and your coworking flat,
you’re not fully let.
You’re just wasting potential

Flex success is not about more space.
It’s about using what you already have better.
Squeezing every corridor, every room, every service until it earns its place.

That’s the job.
Keep the monster close enough to feed it,
and far enough that it never learns your name

James Panepinto is General Manager for Clockwise Offices Manchester, England and UK Chair / UK Chair for FLOC (Future Leaders of Coworking)

We’re building something with Future Leaders of Coworking (FLOC) — for the people who care enough to change this industry from the inside out. For the next generation of leaders in Coworking.

If that sounds like you (or someone you know), reach out.