Covid has effected virtually all aspects of the makerspace business and created a lot of uncertainty. Many spaces closed up permanently within days or weeks after begin forced to temporarily close.
Urban Workshop had to close for 60 days and while I was terrified because of the uncertainty, I was confident we could ride it out.
I was confident because one of the guiding principles of the Makerspace Blueprint is to have 4 revenue streams:
Memberships
Onsite Storage
Adult Classes
Youth Classes
Together they provide a solid stream of revenue and in the event that one or more ever take a hit, for any reason, you still have the other streams.
When COVID struck we immediately sent a heart felt email to our members and asked them to stick with us and if they could to keep their memberships active. About 60% did just that.
The storage continued 100%. Everyone understood that if we had to pay rent, so did they.
The adult classes went to zero.
The youth program was early in the semester so we quickly rallied and recorded video classes for the students so they could complete the semester and allow us to do good-will make ups in the summer. It remained at 100% until the end of the semester.
Our staff went home and we helped them get their unemployment claims filed quickly. With the extra federal money it was a good deal for everyone.
So all said and done. We cut expenses by 65%. Our revenue only fell 28%. The 4 pillars worked as planned and we had cash on hand to bring back the staff and ride it out until the membership and adult classes got back to where they should be.
COVID is definitely the extreme case but makerspaces struggle all the time when they don’t have all four of the revenue streams. Which ones can you implement quickly to generate more revenue?
It’s a tremendous amount of work and it takes years to build all the necessary documents and curriculum to make this work but it is well worth it. It took us more than 7 years and about a million dollars to build it all out.
Instead of doing it yourself, you can shortcut it and use the Makerspace Blueprint. For example, our youth program curriculum and procedures generate over $600,000 per year and you could turn it on tomorrow.
Would you like to serve 800 more students this year and make massive impact all while making the business more secure? The Makerspace Blueprint will do just that.
Go to www.MakerspaceBlueprint.com for more info or click here to schedule a free 1-hour consultation call now.