Building Cococo – #7 – Online/Offline

Construction Update

Let's start with the only thing that is surprisingly actually going as planned. The rooftop is standing still and offers the view I was hoping for. This month we'll focus on building the walls. Exciting.

It's so much easier now to walk into the site and actually imagine people working and hanging out, and that's doing wonders for my motivation.

Offline/Online Mindfuck

A new thing I'm dealing with is the challenge of switching between my "online brain" to the "offline" one. I like the combination and think it's good, business, and mental-wise, but it's sometimes weird.

One second, I'm analyzing user behavior on my SaaS product, and right after talking with cement suppliers about shipping costs. I try to solve it by splitting my week, one half online and one half offline. I think it's working better.

Lately, I'm also trying to get more involved (read: sticking my nose) in friends' businesses around the island to learn the difficulties and challenges of offline businesses. Let me tell you online entrepreneurs something - our life is fucking easy. I can't believe I used to complain about server costs when an average Cafe runs on a 15% profit margin.

Saying that, there is also something that feels more secure and real with the offline business. Unlike software, It's really there. I can walk in it and feel it. Hard to explain, but it's a different level of commitment, which makes you feel safe for some reason.

Design

So I got addicted to a mediocre-but-oddly-satisfying software: SketchUp. It's like playing Sims but with your real-life project.

I also think it's nice because it connects me, a "computer" guy, to the construction world better, making me feel just a little bit less lost.

And A Few More Things

Finance

As we move forward, the project costs are getting clearer. I already paid for 60% of the construction and have enough money for the rest + the interior of phase 1(No rooftop and resto yet), as long as my online earning predictions would go as planned.

However, I've done my homework and prepared for unexpected costs starting to show up, something that is apparently very common in the offline world. I've built 3 possible roadmaps for different financial cases to deal with that. Yeah, I'm a bit uptight on this one.

Community

Not much has changed, really. We are doing mostly the Digital Nomads Dinners, which are getting ~20 people at a time.  There is, of course, more to do, but it takes a lot of energy at the moment, so I'm keeping it this way until we're getting closer to the opening date.

Oh, and we're already 1.1k members on the community FB group 🥳

Canceling the retreats

I planned to organize digital nomad retreats this summer to "make Siargao known as a digital nomad destination before CoCoCo is even ready". Well - that's not happening.

I realized that it is going to be a logistic nightmare without a proper Coworking Space, and the benefit is not big enough.

Website new focus

The Cococo website, which gets most of its traffic from organic search leading to the Full digital nomad guide to Siargao, was focused mostly on making visitors signup for retreats and to join the community.

As the opening date is starting to look not that far, I've shifted the main focus to collecting early signups and adjusted all the website's CTAs accordingly.

What's next?

This month I will be working on Cococo's Cafe menu, Remote work workshops for the local community, creating more online presence, and a small side project that involves coconuts and AI.

Thanks for reading!
More updates soon 😊