The Ultimate Guide to Crafting a Winning Business Plan for Your Coworking Space

Business plans are cornerstone documents for any company, as they contain essential details about:

• The target market.
• The main competitors.
• Revenue and cost projections.
• Products, services, marketing strategies, and more.

This means writing down a detailed business plan is vital for both your team and outside investors looking to finance your coworking space. In this article, we’ll go over the essential topics your coworking business plan must cover and give you an outline for structuring the document in a logical way.

First, let’s start with a quick overview of business plans.

Business Plans 101 (High-Level Outline Template)

A business plan is a document describing how you plan to start, grow, and manage a business.

You can think of it as a high-level road map that shows where your business is today, where it will go, and how you plan to get it there.

There are tons of useful resources online on how to write a business plan, so we won’t reinvent the wheel here. You can check out QuickBooks’ guide to writing business plans, which proposes a 10-step structure:

1. Executive summary, which is a one-page overview of the business. 
2. Company description, which includes things like history, objectives, and mission statement.  
3. Market research and potential, which describes your target market, including things like names, demographic info, location, company size (for B2B), and so on.
4. Competitive analysis, which identifies other businesses selling similar goods or services to your target market.
5. Product or service description, which explains what you’re planning to sell, how it works, and its unique benefits.
6. Marketing and sales strategy, which goes over how you plan to get your product or service to your target market and convince them to buy.
7. Business financials, which can include a whole host of documents like income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, and so on.
8. Organization and management, which lays out your organizational structure and key role inside your company. 
9. Funding requests, which is an optional element for companies looking to raise funds.
10. Appendix for official documents, which can be all sorts of documents useful to potential investors, like patents, certificates, deeds, licenses, and so on.

This outline can be a good starting point for any organization looking to build a business plan. In the next sections, we’ll cover 6 topics that are specific to coworking spaces and should be heavily featured in your business plan.

#1 Target Market and Differentiators

Your coworking business plan should answer two key questions near the start:

• Who’s your target market? For example, some coworking spaces focus on enterprise businesses looking for stable, long-term offices. Others target startups that need a small office and a meeting room but have the potential to expand rapidly. 
• What differentiators are going to attract customers from that market to your space? This typically starts with location. Are you going to be near the city center, with lots of amenities nearby, or in a more quiet and secluded suburban area? If you want more details, we have an entire guide on how to choose the right location for your space. Amenities and price can also be additional differentiators.

#2 Main Coworking Product Mix

Your coworking product mix is made up of the products you sell.

As we said in our article on creating a strong product mix, new coworking spaces should focus on three main products:

• Open spaces
• Private offices
• Meeting rooms

It’s important for your business plan to establish what percentage of the space will be allocated to each product. Additionally, it should also include information about how much you plan to charge for them and why.

For example, desks in open spaces may be available for rent on a pay-as-you-go basis, while private offices should be included in membership plans. Meeting rooms can also be included in membership plans or be available for rent by the hour.

#3 Extra Revenue Generators

The bulk of your revenue typically comes from your main product mix. However, there are also plenty of ways to add extra revenue streams.

For example, you can diversify your regular membership plans and charge more for them based on 24/7 access, for example. Or, you can create virtual memberships for businesses that want to establish a legal presence and get a reliable correspondence address.

You can also consider a host of value-added services to help you generate more revenue like:

• Secure lockers
• Mailroom services
• Office relocation services 
• Printing and copying services 
• Custom office design, and more

For more details on this topic, check out our article on generating more revenue for your coworking space.

#4 Marketing and Sales Plan

Once you’ve established your revenue generators, it’s time to get into the details of how you plan to get customers through the door. 

Here are some of the key questions you’ll need to answer here:

• Which marketing channels do you plan to use and why? This typically includes a mix of physical and digital touchpoints, like word of mouth, flyers, social media ads, and search engine optimization (SEO).
• How much will it cost for you to attract one customer (CAC)? CACs are highly dependent on the channel, so you’ll need to run a few initial tests before you can answer this one. 
• How much will you earn from one customer over their lifecycle with your brand (CLTV)? You can break this down by customer segments, e.g., freelancers, startups, and enterprise companies. Keeping a pulse on your CLTV will also help you refine your ideal target persona over time.
• How much will you spend on marketing and sales every month? This is usually a pretty straightforward calculation if you have a few months of experience under your belt.

If you’re just getting started and don’t have any experience with marketing and sales, check out our article on the 14 proven strategies for attracting more coworking space members.

#5 Expenses

For most coworking spaces, the biggest recurring expense is the monthly lease (except for operators using management agreements). 

You also want to include other key costs here, such as:

• Salaries
• Marketing
• Space maintenance
• New purchases (desks, chairs, etc.)

#6 Revenue and Cost Projections

The goal of listing your revenue generators and expenses is to get a good idea of how much revenue you’ll need to cover your costs and turn a profit. 

For instance, say you have $5000 of regular expenses every month. Your projections should show how long it would take for revenue to reach and surpass that number. This is perhaps the most important part of any business plan, especially if you’re looking to attract outside investors.

In general, it’s better to be conservative than to set unrealistically high expectations and fall way below them. It’s also a good idea to factor in some unexpected expenses in your calculations.

For example, if your regular expenses are $5000, you want to reach $5500-6000 of monthly revenue before considering the space profitable on a monthly basis.

This coworking revenue calculator is a useful resource for projecting profits and losses, as well as building charts for investor decks.

Establish and Grow Your Coworking Space with OfficeRnD’s Flex Startup Program

Writing a business plan is only one step in building a successful coworking space. You also need to find the right location, promote your space, and before everything else, choose the right coworking management software. 

To help you out, we created the OfficeRnD Flex Startup program. It’s geared towards aspiring flex and coworking entrepreneurs and offers an attractive 50% annual discount on OfficeRnD Flex’s startup plan. Plus, you get access to Flex Academy – an expertly curated list of coworking resources that contain everything you need to build, manage and grow a successful coworking space in 2023 and beyond.

Apply for the Flex Startup program here.