Open Office Space

Entrepreneurs - Are your thumbs the most fit part of your body?

     

For 17 years prior to getting involved in the whole technology thing (and even to a small extent today), I was a personal trainer. Throughout my career I have worked with a very diverse group of clients including: professional athletes, CEO's of public companies, stay at home moms & dads, weekend warriors, children, teens as well as basically every personality type you can think of.

While there were many obvious differences between each one of my clients, there was definitely one constant...a noticeable improvement in mood and mental clarity immediately following a workout session. 

As part of another venture I am involved with, I have been exposed to fascinating research detailing the positive impact exercise can have on a persons brain. Spark - The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise And The Brain, written by John J. Ratey MD, is a groundbreaking exploration of the connection between exercise and the brain’s performance that shows how even moderate exercise will supercharge mental circuits to beat stress, sharpen thinking, enhance memory, and much more.  Here are some interesting facts and tidbits from the first few chapters of Spark:

- Chicago's Napperville District 203, consisting on the 19,000 students is one of the fittest in the nation...they are also one of the smartest. They consistently rank among the state's top ten in terms of academic performance

- Napperville students use heart rate monitors to gauge their progress. Their students are graded on how much time they spend in their target heart rate zones during any given activity. Using heart rate monitors to measure progress, as opposed to relying solely on athletic performance, prevents less coordinated students from becoming discouraged and building a lifelong to distaste for exercise.

- Napperville's school system is far ahead of the national norm for fitness. Only one out of every 130 students was obese.

- Exercise can postively affect mood, attention, self-esteem, and social skills. The cruel irony is that old school physical education programs, discouraged a lifelong adoption of exercise by alienating shy, clumsy and out of shape students.

- In a 2007 study of humans, German Researchers found that people learn vocabulary words 20 percent faster following exercise.

While the subjects in this book are mostly children, there is a lesson that can be applied to all age groups. I cannot help but be amazed at the amount of 20,30 and 40 something entrepreneurs that are completely physically inactive...except for getting a vigorous thumb workout on their blackberry's. 

The launch of Open Office Space has provided me with the good fortune to connect/converse with new entrepreneurs and small businesses every day.The 3 most common excuses by entrepreneurs for not including exercise as part of their daily routine are time, money and motivation. Here are my quick and dirty rebuttals to these excuses.

Time - Get up 30 minutes earlier, go to bed 30 minutes later or bring your clothes to work and exercise during lunch. You do not need to spend 2 hours in the gym to get results. I would bet that you waste much more than 30 minutes per day on things that are not truly productive. Replace these time wasters with a 30 minute bout of exercise.

Money - You absolutely do not need to pay for a gym to exercise. If you are not sure what kind of exercise would be right for you, pay a trainer for one hour of his time. They can create a workout you can do at home or in the office...for free.

Motivation - C'mon people we are entrepreneurs! We have more motivation than most. If you are not persuaded by the health benefits of exercise, spend a few minutes researching the benefits that exercise can offer you as abusinesseman. Perhaps your risk-reward analysis will produce a different result.  

From my own experience, nothing helps me break through a mental road block, manage stress or come up with creative solutions to tough issues better than a good workout.

I really hope that the fitness intiatives being launched in the school systems today are carried over to the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

Content Source: John Ratey MD website 
Image Source: The Wireless Report

Your homepage is a virtual 15-second elevator pitch. Does yours ramble on?

Prior to getting into the whole technology thing, I was a personal trainer (over 17 years) to the rich and famous in New York City and Long Island. In order to survive  as a personal trainer with this type of clientele, there was one communication skill that was a MUST...the ability to get to the point.

I am convinced that the concept of the bobblehead came from someone watching a conversation between myself and one of my clients during my first few years of training. Here's how it probably happened:

1)  I would bring up a topic and ramble on about it

2) My client would lose interest after my a few minutes but continue to shake their head in agreement to be polite.

3) Clients head would continue to bob their heads up and down as long as I was talking.

4) An outsider witnessed this exchange and the idea for the bobblehead was born. 

Thankfully, one of my clients sat me down and explained the importance of getting to the point. He informed me most business leaders are bombarded every day with ideas, business proposals and other types of pitches. In addition, they have very little patience for small talk as there are so many hours in the day, and so many people vying for their attention.

Needless to say, I have gotten very good at not only getting to the point, but also recognizing the signs when someone has lost interest in a conversation.

Not so subtle Segue.

A companies homepage needs to be as brief and to the point as a face to face elevator pitch. Unlike a human interaction, a homepage does offer the luxury of a direct conversation with regards to being able to recognize that a person is losing interest. They just click away from your site.

It is amazing how many websites, many which look quite impressive and even beautiful, do not express the benefits that can be derived from the site, service or application. They might be chock full of information, but it is not really clear what they do or exactly what problems they solve for their visitors.

Companies are spending huge dollars with SEO experts to ensure they rank high on the major search engines. And/or they retain  "social media experts" to help increase their brands exposure and drive more traffic to the website...but is it a waste? All the traffic in the world is pointless if people click away once they get to your site.

It is critical to constantly step outside of your own head, and view your homepage from a visitors standpoint. Does it clearly (and briefly) state your companies benefits and what problems you solve for your visitors? Are your calls to action consistent with your other marketing efforts?  Does it take more than 15 seconds to get the gist of the sites offerings?

Openofficespace.com is about a week and a half from launching version 2.0 of our site. While we'd like to think that our initial site accomplished all that is mentioned above, it was only after we stepped back and viewed the site from a different perspective that we came up with "flaw fixers" that we hope will take us to the next level.  

Create a Virtual Tour Of Your Unused Office Space and Stand Out From The Crowd

As the inventory of unused office space continues to rise across the country, the ability for spaceholders to get their properties to stand out from the crowd is growing increasingly more difficult.

With an unused commercial property representing anywhere from a few hundred dollars a month, to several tens of thousands, investing in the right marketing tools to help get your property noticed definitely makes financial sense.

While single shot photos are great and highly recommended for all properties posted on Open Office Space, an alternative marketing tool taking our site by storm is the virtual tour. Well known in the residential real estate market, virtual tours are beginning to make quite a splash in the lagging commercial real estate market as well.

A virtual tour is comprised of 360 degree panoramic images, partial panoramas, and even still images. In many cases, virtual tours are more effective than a single shot photograph as they show a space in its entirety. This  helps to better refine the search results for a small business/entrepreneur looking for a space, and more thoroughly qualifies the incoming leads for the spaceholder.

Click here to see a sample virtual tour of a commercial property.

There are several available virtual tour technologies on the market, however the best ones we have seen involve shooting twelve photos at a pre-specified overlap. The twelve overlapping photos are then stitched into a 360 degree panorama.

Real Tour Vison, based in Traverse Michigan, offers one of the most impressive virtual tour technologies in the industry and also has the largest full service virtual tour and property marketing network in the world. (this means you cannot use your location as an excuse not to one created for your space)

Of their many, many features that RTV offers, the ones that amaze me the most are the size of their virtual tour window along with how crisp and glossy their images appear. If this does not convince you, here are  31 more features offered by a Real Tour Vision virtual tour.

 

A virtual tour of your open office space can be easily added to your property listing. Simply copy and paste the link into your listing admin page and a link to your virtual tour is automatically added to your listing.

So here's the question: Will you take the steps to get your unused property noticed or will your start shopping for nerf hoops to make use of your unused space yourself?

History of RTV    

Begun in 1999, RTV sought to create a virtual tour system which would deliver the highest quality imagery at a much faster rate than other virtual tour products being offered at that time.

Originally designed for resorts, golf courses, upscale lodging facilities and others requiring high quality, the demand in the real estate industry accelerated the introduction of proprietary software in 2001 that decreased the tour building process to 30-45 minutes without sacrificing any quality.

Immediately, independent franchises and divisions of several Fortune 500 Companies such as GMAC, Land America, Stewart Title, RE/MAX, and Coldwell Banker began to use the nation's finest tour building product.

Launch, Listen, Learn - Don't Let Perfection Stand In The Way of Success

Over the years I have heard many variations of Voltaire's observation "The perfect is the enemy of the good." In my opinion, this concept is responsible for many failed online initiatives.

Let me explain.

When an entrepreneur or small business decides they are going to launch a new website/update a current one, the process often occurs in a vacuum. Mockups and demo links are shared with close friends, co-workers and even family members as a way to determine if your web designer is "on the right track."  

Sure as the sun will rise, if you ask for someones opinion, you will get it. The problem with this scenario is that more often than not, these groups do not accurately represent your target audience. As a result, you will spend a lot of time and money tweaking buttons, text, navigation and other elements that will really have very little impact on the success of your website.

It is nearly impossible to guarantee that a new or upgraded website will be 100% perfect when it launches. Only after launch, can you expect to get the feedback and/or criticisms that will help you improve the usability of your site.

Tip #1 - Make sure your website and social media efforts actively encourage feedback. Ex. Adding a suggestion form field on your homepage or posting a direct request for feedback on Twitter. 

When you do start to receive feedback, it is important that you qualify the source and carefully consider these suggestions before implementing any changes. Remember, no matter what changes you make to your site, you are not going to make everyone happy.

Tip #2 - Ask yourself if a change you are considering will actually improve the clarity of your brands message and overall site usability experience. Obsessing over the color of a button or size/style of a font could be a huge waste of time when more important things need to be changed (I am guilty of this)

The first iteration of openofficespace.com was launched after only about 4 weeks. Since our launch, we have received some very good feedback/criticism that we hope will elevate us from a very good idea, to an extremely valuable service for spaceholders, small businesses and entrepreneurs. We hope to launch iteration two in the next few weeks.

We acknowledge there is a delicate balance between launching something that is simply not ready vs. something that is good enough to generate quality feedback without losing the respect of your audience.

Assuming that your site is "good enough" - launching, listening and learning from your target audience can help you build traction on search engines while potentially preserving your first mover advantage.  Waiting to launch until your site is perfect is a great way to guarantee failure...only your audience will know the answer to that.

     

What do Nike, MTV and Effective Real Estate Marketing Have in Common?

Nike, MTV and Effective Real Estate Marketing have one trait in common: All three utilize powerful imagery to generate an emotional response from their intended audience.

Phil Knight of Nike had the foresight to create powerful marketing messages utilizing strong images/video of select sports superstars wearing Nike products (ex. Andre Agassi, Michael Jordan, etc.). He understood that a combination of imagery and his marketing message would create larger than life heroes, and ultimately strengthen the Nike brand.

Similarly, MTV recognized that creating a forum to comine video with music would create a much stronger response to the artist and their music, compared to listening to the music on its own.

As the price of digital photo/video cameras, editing software and virtual tours have dramatically decreased, coupled with increasing number of free sites that host these assets, virtually any space holder is capable of creating rich media assets to showcase their property.

Similar to Phil Knight and MTV, forward thinking real estate marketers understand the emotional attachments strong imagery can create to their property.

One of the mottos at my other company, 3Dwalkthroughs.com, is "we don't create pictures", "we create emotions."

In today's economy, companies and individuals most do whatever they can to stand out from the crowd. Not including imagery on a property listing, especially considering how easy its become, is just bad business.

One of the first negative comments we received when we launched Open Office Space was that "we suck" because we did not offer an ability to add video to our listings. (granted, we should have known better) Needless to say people can now add video to their property listings...and we don't suck. 

The video below tells the story of one of the pioneers of the coworking movement, Citizen Space. Notice how effectively the video demonstrates their culture and makes you want to be a part of their space. Much more effective than simply a written description.

An additional bonus of creating rich imagery such as video and pictures is they can also be posted to sites such as YouTube, Flickr, etc. These sites can garner your property significant more exposure than simply placing them on a static website. 

The data is mounting regarding the competitive advantage that can be gained by adding imagery to your property listing.

So, the question remains. Will you sit with your arms crossed holding your breath, insisting you can't afford, or don't have the techical expertise to create powerful imagery for your space.  Or will you stop with excuses and realize creating rich imagery is easy, affordable, and most importantly, the most effective way of getting your property noticed.

Shared Office Space - It Can Offer A Lot More Value Than Just Saving a Few Pennies

In its simplest form, the concept of shared office space is a great way for a space holder and a small business/entrepreneur to save money. Whether it means the small business/entrepreneur offsets a portion of the total rent, contributes to the cost of the utilities, or a combination of the two, a shared space can serve as a financial win-win for both parties. 

 

In the spirit of the old Ginsu knife commercial "But Wait There's More..."

 

Shared Office space can offer both parties an opportunity to share new ideas, technologies, contacts and even forge valuable joint venture relationships.

 

It is not uncommon for a shared office space to be comprised of several companies operating very similar businesses. In this scenario, shared space holders can collaborate on projects, refer projects back and forth or even promote that their respective companies can offer a wider array of services.

 

If the companies sharing a space are completely unrelated, there are probably still many networking opportunities that can arise from the relationship. It seems like "everybody" knows "somebody" that does "something" related to somebody else's business.

 

Even if the benefits are not felt immediately, you never know when a shared space holder can offer a relationship or contact that can make a huge impact on a company. 

 

A quick story to illustrate that "you never know". 

 

My company (a website design and 3D animation company) shared space with an independent movie company. For months we had limited conversation other than a few pleasantries. One day, they asked me to sit and listen to a pitch for a movie idea they had. Not sure why they asked me but I found it to be a very interesting idea.

 

In my previous life (for 17 years) I was a personal trainer in a very wealthy area in New York. One of my clients was a hedge fund manager that just happened to recently invest in a company that funded independent movies.

 

Long story short, a pitch meeting was arranged, and in just a few short days almost $1,000,000 was committed to the making of the movie. The movie went on to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, was on the cover of the NY Times and was also released in several theaters across the nation. (I now have an associate producer credit on IMDB)

 

If it was not for the relationship that was forged by sharing a space, the chances that the movie would have received financing as quickly, or at all were very slim.

 

In today's economy companies must be willing to work together to survive. While on the surface the decision to share an office space might seem to be purely financial. Companies that give this relationship a try might soon realize that the financial benefit is only the tip of the iceberg.

 

To post or find a shared office space you can visit openofficespace.com or the various other websites geared to facilitating these relationships.  

 

 

WHY Magazine - A Great Resource For Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses

                        

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking with Dina Santorelli, Editor and Publisher of Why Magazine. Why Magazine was launched in May 2007 by Dina and her business partner Lucille De Tingo on behalf of their company eLuna Media LLC.

Why, (an abbreviation of Work. Home. You.) is dedicated to those who know that working at home isn't all about snooze buttons, bathrobes and bunny slippers; it is written for work-at-homers of all types--entrepreneurs, telecommuters and part-time home workers, both online and offline--and gives them the tools and information they need to keenly manage their business, their home and their life.

Source: DinaSantorelli.com 

In today's economy, many small businesses and entrepreneurs are going to have no choice but to streamline their overhead by finding more affordable office space (Shamless Plug - openofficespace.com) or relocating their business into a home office...perhaps a combination of both.

Anyone that has tried running a business from a home office learns pretty quickly it comes with a distinct set of challenges.

-Staying Creative
-Avoiding Distractions
-Maintaining The Delicate Balance Between Work and Family
-Making Time For Exercise
-Eating Properly
-Knowing When To Turn Off Computer
-and the list goes on

Why Magzine is a bi-montly magazine that deliver the solutions to these challenges via an extremely user friendly and aesthetically pleasing interface. Interestingly, while Why Magazine is geared towards the work-at-homer, many of the solutions, tips and tricks offer on the site, can also help small businesses and entrepreneurs achieve a balance in a remote office setting. 

ABOUT WHY MAGAZINE

                                                                                                                    Work                                                                                                                  

Read profiles of people, just like you, who had a dream, took a chance and created thriving work-at-home businesses. Learn about those who have made working from a satellite home office a winning proposition for both company and worker, and those who bring work home and actually manage to do it.                                                                                                                                            

Home

Let's face it: You're working from home, and as frenzied as it is, there are a lot of perks that go with it - like getting the laundry done or running to the bank during traditional business hours. Here, you'll learn ways to make your home more amenable to working, while keeping it as it should be- a comfortable haven for you and your family. In this section, you'll also learn things like the best recipes for work-at-homers or how to organize your bookshelves for both form and function.                     

You

Ah, and what about you? You know what they say about all work and no play...Just because you're working from home, doesn't mean your life should be filled with FedEx and futons. This is the place for wellness, fashion, automobiles, movies and music, fitness and more to keep your life balanced, as it should be.

Source: Why Magazine

We can only speculate when the economy will rebound and return to a stable footing. One thing does remain true, only companies and entrepreneurs that heed the advice and wisdom of resources such as Why Magazine will be around to enjoy the day it does.

                                                                                    

Openofficespace.com - In The Face Of The Recession, A FREE Service Is Launched To Help Companies Monetize Their Unused Rental Space

Does your company have a desk, cubicle, office or suite that is generating dust as opposed to revenue? Have you recently downsized your workforce resulting in an abundance of unused office space? Is your company locked into a long term lease and could benefit from an additional revenue stream?

In today's economy, many companies are downsizing their workforce, resulting in a growing inventory of unused commercial space. At the same time, a large number of entrepreneurs and small businesses are looking to reduce their overhead by re-negotiating their existing commercial leases, or finding new space altogether.

Openofficespace.com ( www.openofficespace.com ), based in New York City, has launched a new website to facilitate the interaction between companies burdened with carrying the cost of their unused office space and small businesses/entrepreneurs looking to streamline their expenses.

A shared space is the perfect solution for a small business or entrepreneur looking to cut costs, while providing a revenue stream to a space holder when they can use it the most. This “win-win” relationship also helps landlords as it could prevent a tenant from having to give back a space altogether.

Openofficespace.com was designed with ease of use as the number one priority. "We set out to create an extremely clean and user friendly experience that is unlike a typical real estate or classified website, says David Gise, founder of Openofficespace.com.”

In just minutes, a space holder can post their property listing including: property descriptions, photos, maps, virtual tours, 2D/3D floor plans and even property brochures.

Small businesses and entrepreneurs looking for cost effective retail, office, commercial or service space can easily search property listings by country, state, neighborhood or price. If a user does not find a “space” meeting their criteria, they can create an email alert which will automatically notify them if a property is listed that does.

In addition to having an ability to find and post available office space, visitors to the site can build a detailed company profile to promote their products and services to a captive audience of small businesses and entrepreneurs.

"We are busy developing many other innovative features that will be rolled out over the next few months, says David Gise, founder of Openofficespace.com.”

For the next 60 days openofficespace.com will allow any company to send a list of their properties along with its respective information, and it will be listed on the site for them at no charge.

To learn more about Open Office Space you can visit the website at: www.openofficespace.com or visit the blog at: http://www.openofficespace.typepad.com

 

 

Promote Your Business to a Captive Audience of Small Business Leaders and Entrepreneurs

Tomorrow openofficespace.com will be launching our NEW Company Profile Pages.

Company profile pages can be created by businesses of any size. The profile pages will include a companies logo, complete contact information, company description, social media badges and will even automatically input any properties a company has listed on our site.

As the Open Office Space website targets primarily small businesses and entrepreneurs, this FREE advertising medium might be a perfect way to introduce your company to a captive audience of potential customers.

In keeping with the extremely user friendly interface of the rest of our site, an entire profile can be live in under 3 minutes...and the cost? Take your hand and connect the tip of your pointer finger to the tip of your thumb. What does that symbolize? Zero, free, zip, bubkis. 

In tough economic times such as these, small business leaders and entrepreneurs are going to be looking for companies that are able to strike that delicate balance between price and service.

Don't stand on the sidelines waiting for your company to get noticed. Put your brand in front of the people that are actually looking for your companies products and services. 

A SECRET BETWEEN ME AND YOU. SHHHHHHH! As we are just getting rolling with this concept, building a profile on our site before your competitors do might just land you a quick project or sale.

Related Posts

The Official Soft Launch of Openofficespace.com

The Official Soft Launch of Openofficespace.com

We are proud to announce the soft launch of Openofficespace.com. We are defining the launch as soft as we are still doing some minor fine tuning to the site.

The mission of Open Office Space is to facilitate the interaction between those who need office space and those who have unused office space. To that end, we have built an extremely clean and user friendly interface that is unlike the typical confusing real estate site.

About Open Office Space                                                                                                              In today's economy many companies are downsizing their workforce, yet they are still locked into a long term lease. Conversely, many entrepreneurs and small businesses are looking for available office space at the most affordable rates possible. Open Office Space brings both parties together in a true win-win relationship...and the best part, it's FREE!

Those that have space to rent can simply enter their property details, photos, maps, floor plans and contact information. Those that are looking for space can easily search by location, property type or desired rent terms.

Open Open Space is the easiest and most effective place to Post/Find Unused:
Office Space
Industrial Space
Creative/Gallery Space
Retail Restaurant Space
Medical Space
Showroom Space
Warehouse Space
Shared Space                                                                                                                          Flexible Space

The evolution of the Open Office Space concept. 

Over the past few months we have attended several meetings with potential consulting clients. It is fair to say, of the last eight meetings, four of them ended with an offer to sublease a portion of their office space…and cheap.

Apparently many of these companies downsized their workforce but were still locked into their long term lease. This left them with a substantial amount of unused (non-monetized) space.  

On the flip side, as serial entrepreneurs, we are constantly on the lookout for available office space at the most affordable rates possible (especially during these times). On my walk back to my office from one of these meetings I realized an opportunity existed to create a place where these parties could find each other and interact. 

In addition to space holders and entrepreneurs we also realized our concept will could help landlords as well. Giving their tenants an ability to sublease their space might prevent a given tenant from having to give it up altogether.

Boom! Open Office Space was conceived.

Over the next few weeks we will be rolling out many new features and would appreciate any feedback/suggestions as to how we can improve our service. Oh and please feel free to start spreading the word to your friends and business associates.