Building Cococo – #10 – Adjustments

Delaying the opening, a $2k mistake, swimming pool vs. rooftop, community (out of) control, and some other juice in this very busy month.

Time

I delayed the opening date by three months, all the way to Feb 1st, 2024. Some people kinda hate me for that, and they are kinda right cause I did kinda promise them that it would be ready for the upcoming surf season. Sorry, ya'll 🙄.
Why did I do that?:

• My original plan was to open and keep building the outdoor areas gradually. I was advised that this was a bad idea. The workers won't like it cause they will need to be quiet, and the users won't like it cause the outdoors will look like a construction site.
• Unlike a typical business, I have more money as time goes. My income comes from my online business, and I'm not dependent on the earnings of this space.
• November is the rainy season, and since my internet source is Starlink, I won't be able to provide an amazing internet yet.
• I have no investors I need to please, and I can use some more time (extremely busy lately), so why not?

Construction

I fucked up, I pay.

I can be pretty dumb, that's ain't new. But this time, it cost me $2k. Long story short, I designed the Cafe in the space very generously(24 sqm) for no real reason. Only after it was ready, a friend who visited the space pointed it out, and I realized that I could easily add 5 more desks if I'd made it smaller. So I did ask my contractor (he laughed 😐) to demolish and rebuild the counter.

Considering the monthly membership price, this $2k should be paid back pretty quickly, but still, not the most pleasant experience.

Swimming pool vs. Rooftop

So the opening date is delayed. This gives me some extra time and money to make more of Cococo. There were two main things I could do considering the new time and budget I got: A swimming pool or covering and equipping the rooftop.

For me, it was obvious that a pool was in priority, but my interior designer thought differently, so I turned to our community:

The results on WhatsApp and FB were different, IMO because the people on WhatsApp are on the island, while the FB members are mostly in Manila/Cebu. Eventually, it didn't matter cause I couldn't do the rooftop structure due to technical issues, but it was good to hear people's opinions. The pool is already in progress, along with an outdoor kitchen, more on that next time.

Things I never considered

This month I also needed to finalize things like the type of outlets, the lighting fixtures and bulb types, A/C and ceiling fans, and the paint type.

Each one of these motherfuckers mentioned above is apparently a whole world of options and affects the space in its own way.

This will be way too much to go into detail, but I've spent much time learning and consulting with people who know a lot more than me, and I want to believe we have made the right decisions.

Community

The community keeps growing FAST and requires more resources than I expected. Still figuring out how to keep it great without investing too much of my resources so that I can focus on building.

Community Manager

My first hire, the new community manager, just finished his first month in the role and I couldn't be more happy with my choice.

I won back a lot of my time, which is very necessary at this point. It's not always easy, and I'm still learning how to make sure everything is done in the way I want Cococo to be, but 100% worth it.

Group structure modification

NGL, I did see it coming. It's a problem when I manage the island's digital nomad community and also have my own business, that they are its target audience.

I'll save you the drama details (Sorry Filipino readers), but some people aren't pleased. A bit ridiculous considering I'm putting a lot of time, money (paid community manager), and energy into it while still having no business that will directly earn from it.

After talking with Matthias of Coworking Bansko whom I find a lot of similarities to his business situation, and a few friends from the industry, I decided the solution will be to brand all the groups under Cococo to make sure it's clearly part of our business, and there is no problem for us to decide what and who we approve.

There is such thing as "too early"

They say it's never too early to start a community for your business. I used to believe in that, and in fact started this community 2 years before Cococo will start to operate.

As a member of the community, I'm happy because I did meet lots of new people. As a business owner, I can say for sure that this was too early. The fact that I spent last month hours and hours moderating the community and dealing with unpleasant members while, for example, I didn't have the time to apply for an electricity line or plan the network structure of my space, simply doesn't make sense.

Cebu trip

Last week I had the time to go to Cebu, the second-largest city in The Philippines. The main reason was purchasing plumbing and lighting fixtures and meeting an interior designer friend.

It was a great opportunity to check out some Cafes and Coworking spaces in the city and get some inspiration, as well as learn about the market.

Lastly, I got lucky to squeeze in a quick 2 day vacation in Moalboal, and for the first time after 1.5 years, I found out how beautiful nature is in this country outside of Siargao.

I'm doing pretty damn good

I write mostly about the challenges, but I did take the time this month to appreciate how far I've got.

I manage to live by the planned budget ($800/m), my online businesses are at an all-time high (Shoffi with 2.5k users and RTL Master with almost 1k paying users), I follow my daily workout routine, building Cococo kind of on-budget and kind of on-time, and above all of that - I surf whenever there's a swell.

This does require a lot, and I'm the busiest I've ever been, for sure. 3 years ago I had a bad burnout from a lower workload, so I believe I improved.

Saying that I know it's not a sustainable routine, and there are personal goals(read: relationships) that I have to sacrifice for this to happen. I plan to give them the time and energy next year (happy, mom?).

And also this

• I'm building 3 businesses, not 1.
  As I get into the operation details, I understand that the 3 are related but should be treated as 3, with a manager for each: Coworking space, Community, and Cafe.
• New flywheel
  I keep hearing about this method and think it fits Cococo very well as a business built on long-term relationships. Here's our Flywheel.

What's next month?

• Comparing vendors and buying the fixtures as planned (lights, toilets, outlets, etc.)
• Pouring concrete for sidewalks and the spiral stairs to the roof, excited for that.
• Starting to design in detail the Conference room and the Community room.

Here's a nice sunset from the rooftop a few days ago while showing the place around to a friend.
Thanks for reading, See you on the next one!