Virtual Offices: How Coworking Spaces are Generating Unlimited Profit from a Non-Perishable Product

• A recent GCUC panel made the point that workspace is a time-limited, perishable product.
• Unlike physical space, virtual offices are non-perishable, and coworking spaces can sell as many virtual plans as they like.
• Mike Sullivan explains how virtual offices diversify revenue and enable operators to gain sustainable growth.

Have you ever thought of your workspace as perishable? 

Just like food products, workspace is a perishable good, too. 

Perishability simply means that the product is time-limited. Flight seats are another non-food example. Once a plane has departed, any unsold seats are lost because they can’t be stored and sold at a later date. In other words, they perish. 

At the recent GCUC event in Salt Lake City (April 2024), I attended a panel moderated by Kane Willmott from IQ Offices, Christmas Marquez-Correa from Flexspace, and Melissa Cates from Serendipity Labs.  

It was during this panel that Christmas Marquez-Correa brought up the topic of perishability.  

Dynamic pricing helps companies like Delta, Hilton and Uber to maximize revenue and avoid excess waste by encouraging early purchase of flights or hotel rooms. It can also be used to sell off remaining products at the last minute. 

Just like in tourism, aggregators can help to sell your perishable space fast and cost-efficiently — and as Christmas noted, the more aggregators you actively work with and manage, the better. 

So why is workspace perishable? 

Your space has a perishable date and that date is now. You have an obligation to sell enough coworking memberships, or private offices, or meeting space to cover overhead costs and create profit margin. It goes without saying that if you can’t meet that obligation, your space will perish. 

That’s the bad news. 

The good news is, there’s another product your coworking space can sell that’s non-perishable. 

We’re talking about virtual offices. 

Virtual offices are not bound by physical space. A virtual office utilizes your business address and mail handling services — both of which are existing infrastructure, and neither of which have physical limitations. 

A virtual office also utilizes mail forwarding, access to meeting rooms, and some other services like lobby listings — all of which attract additional revenue above the standard offering and base price. 

Even better, a virtual office has infinite inventory 

Your coworking space can cater to an unlimited number of virtual office clients simultaneously, unlike traditional spaces, which — just like flight seats — are time-sensitive and have limited capacity. 

This scalability means you can monetize your coworking space without the limitations of physical infrastructure. This is one reason why we refer to virtual offices as a pure profit generator — read more here. 

Moreover, by offering virtual office plans in your coworking space, you remove geographical boundaries, too. 

Companies all over the U.S. and globally need an address in your area in order to enter new markets and expand. You can offer that gateway without any capital investments. 

Simply by offering businesses access to your address, your coworking space will attract clients who want market presence without traditional office lease overheads. 

This accessibility diversifies your membership as well as your revenue, enabling you to achieve sustainable growth and greater market penetration. 

Beyond profitability, your space has the opportunity to gain a competitive edge by creating a unique value proposition. By integrating your virtual office clients within your coworking community and offering access to networking events, workshops, and other amenities, you’ll drive community engagement and member retention, building a vibrant ecosystem in the process. 

Looking to the future of work, virtual offices align with remote work dynamics and distributed teams 

As businesses continue to adopt flexible work and remote collaboration, demand for virtual office solutions and on-demand meeting space continues to surge. 

Integrating virtual office plans into your offering enables your coworking space to gain a position of strength in the future of work.  

Integrating virtual office plans into your offering enables your coworking space to gain a position of strength in the future of work.  

In short, virtual offices can diversify your revenue by providing a non-perishable product that aligns with your existing infrastructure, with infinite inventory, offering a new avenue for sustainable growth and brand differentiation.

Learn more about how Alliance Virtual Offices can help grow your workspace revenue here.