We all know you can’t do it all yourself!

But why is it you can’t get the help you need when you need it?

Because you are asking for the right thing in the wrong way!

Does your pitch sound like this?

I can’t do it without your help. We need money to be able to do xyz. If we don’t get the money/help the program or business is going to fail and die. Please help us.

Those are cries of someone that is desperate and it doesn’t encourage anyone to join in or invest.

I have heard this pitches like this hundreds of times at talks I have given to educators but it also applies to start-ups looking for investment.

Sure it may be true, you need additional funding or resources to expand and add programs. That’s fine.

But, it has been my experience that people want to be share in other peoples success. Not the other way around.

So highlight your successes.

If you have made it this far you have achieved some level of success. To you it may seem small. Maybe, just a few kids here and there. Or some donations you secured that allowed you to set up a demonstration. Whatever it is, that is your ticket to getting help.

That along with your vision of what you aim to achieve.

Let me give you two separate pitches and lets see which one resonates with you.

First the desperate cry for help most educators drop on their administrators:
We have this idea and its great. It can make a real difference in kids lives but we don’t have space to run it and need money to buy all the supplies, and pay for a teacher to run it. We have a presentation about it that outlines all the stuff we don’t have and how much it will cost you to buy it for us. We can’t do it any other way. We need your money so we can do this or it just isn’t going to happen. Please help us. It’s for the kids ya know.

Now the right way:
We have been doing this and have helped x number of kids already. With the small budget and resources we already have we intend to keep on serving even more students and help them in even more ways. Then tell a story about the kids you have helped and the outcome of that effort. Get them to understand and truly believe you are already making a difference without their help and that you are going to continue to do so. Then invite them to come along and enjoy that success with you. Invite them to imagine how much more good you could do together. Remind them, you are going to do this with or without them, but they are welcome to come along and participate for a price.

Do you see the difference between the two pitches?

Frankly the first one is a turn off. It sounds like it’s going to be a hassle. Then what? They are gonna run out of money again and come back for more.

The second one sounds exciting! Its already achieving results and making an impact. They are going to do it with out me. I don’t want to miss out on being part of that and making a difference. They sound like an amazing group of people with vision and I want to be part of that.

Its a completely different pitch. Nothing has changed. You still have the same results and needs you originally had.

The message is just different.

I have seen this work for start up businesses as well. We have a prototype and are working on the production version that is going to change the world. If you partner with us we can get it to market sooner and make money faster while we change the world together.

So before you go back to your school administration team to ask for support, think about what successes you have achieved so far and craft a story that will have them begging to help.

Good luck! I know you can do it!

Don’t forget to share your successes on our Facebook page.

Go to www.MakerspaceBlueprint.com for more info or click the button below to schedule a free 1-hour consultation call now. 

I think we can all agree makerspaces should serve their members with a variety of services intended to help them be successful.

That could mean the successful completion of a project, successfully learning a new skill, or successfully starting a new business.

In all those cases, a person is starting at a lower level of knowledge or engagement and you need to ascend them to the level they desire.

Your services must ascend with them creating what we call the “Value ladder”.

The value ladder, when plotted out, looks like a staircase. You can ascend up the stairs one step at a time until you reach the top, your “goal”. You can also do it at your own pace and go as far up as you want or need to.

But the point is, the structure is there to help them succeed at increasingly difficult tasks or projects. For example, we have structured the adult education program at Urban Workshop in this way.

New members get a free New Member Success Coaching Session within 48 hours of signing up. This session lasts about 30 minutes with one of our lead instructors where we get to know the desires of the new members and can make class recommendations and personal introductions to other members.

Next they take the recommended classes. If they find an area they love and want to learn more, we enroll them in a class track. Class tracks are pre-arranged groupings of classes designed to provide a deeper understanding and skill set in a particular area.

At this point most members have what they need and are successfully working on their projects. Some however desire even more guidance. For them we have 1 to 1 Maker Mentoring they can schedule in 2 hour blocks. These sessions team up our most experienced instructors with the student to council them on advanced techniques and tips to solve a specific problem.

You can see how the offerings get more specific as they the level of the instruction increases. This ensures members always have the support they need and ensures the makerspace has great offerings that provide a steady revenue stream.

This same principle can be applied to membership and youth programs.

For new members we have a discounted one month Groupon offering, which leads to a month to month recurring membership. Once the members have taken some classes some will upgrade to an annual membership. Then they start to build bigger projects or start a business and need to rent storage space.

The Youth Program students are very similar to the adults in that they wish to learn more and increasingly challenging skills. So we offer 4 levels of programming that students take formatted into 12 week “semesters” or one week summer camps. Graduates from that program are eligible to take 4 to 6 week class tracks developed for the younger students but based heavily on the adult class tracks.

These class tracks can be taken until the student is old enough and gained enough experience to become a full fledged member when they turn 16 years old.

Now I am not going to lie, it takes a TON of preparation to planning and documentation to build a structure like we described, but once it is done you have a machine that can make a huge impact in your community and provide the revenue your makerspace need to be sustainable.

It took us 7 years and nearly a million dollars to develop over 150 fully documented adult classes and another 50+ for the youth program. But now our education blueprints sustainably generate over $850,000 annually while we continue to add more classes and services. That’s a little more than half the revenue of the entire makerspace!

I hope you found this helpful. If you want to short cut your way to sustainability and provide the most impact for your community, go to
www.MakerspaceBlueprint.com for more info or click the button below to schedule a free 1-hour consultation call now.

Makerspace Blueprint offers classes and licensing of procedures, standard documents, and class curriculum that will save you years of effort and hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is the secret weapon to running a sustainable makerspace that provides the impact you want.

Every makerspace needs employees. But do they serve the members and and help to create a sustainable space?

It is natural to think, I have my core team or few loyal employees, but it crates a lot of risk and puts you in a position to burn out rapidly.

Does that sound like you? On the edge of burnout just one employee sick day of crashing and burning?

Part-time staff instead of full-time staff is the key to maintaining your sanity and providing great customer service.

Part time employees benefit the makerspace in several ways.

First, by having more employees that work part time, if any one (or two) call in sick you have others who can pick up the hours without going into overtime.

This means you are not “on call” all the time and can have a life!

It also means your part time employees can use the shop for their own projects. Why does that matter?

Your staff will provide infinitely better customer service if they are also a “customer” and can see things from the members perspective.

Of course you will need to train all these staffers, so you better have a good process for training employees. We recommend a new employee training manual that is reviewed over the first couple days of employment.

Then we require all new staff to take all of our basic sign off classes. They get the classes for free and an experience they love and can now express to members.

Finally, I sit down with each new hire in the first week and personally tell them our origin story and our mission for the space. This ensures everyone is rowing in the same direction and lets them know they are part of something bigger.

This may sound daunting at first and it can be challenging to manage a team. But once you have the right people following standard procedures and using standard documents, it can be a pleasure to run a makerspace and work with all the amazing members and students.

You might even be able to sneak in a vacation!

If you found this helpful please check out www.MakerspaceBlueprint.com for more info or click the button below to schedule your free 1-hour consultation call now.

Makerspace Blueprint offers classes and licensing of procedures, standard documents, and class curriculum that will save you years of effort and hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is the secret weapon to running a sustainable makerspace that provides the impact you want.

Insurance, nobody wants but every makerspace needs it.

It’s probably the thing that new makerspace owners are the most confused about.

“What insurance do I need for my makerspace and how do I get it?”

There are several types of insurance needed to protect a makerspace, its owner, and employees..

We are just going to look at General Liability (GL) and Workers Compensation (WC) here. This overview is intended to give you enough information to talk with your local insurance broker to get what you need.

General Liability is the main insurance policy that protects the business, it’s assets, and the owner from law suits, injury claims, etc… It is often required by the state and is a requirement of most commercial building leases.

It has been our experience that most insurance companies don’t know how to classify a makerspace. We have been successfully insured as a Trade School where they consider our staff to be instructors and the members to be students.

Non-profits can be insured as a “Social Service Agency” instead of a trade school. Please note that while an insurance company can refuse to offer coverage they can’t adjust prices based on a perceived additional risk. For example, your non-profit serves only autistic students. That is prejudicial and illegal.

Other factors that may effect price include the size of your building, equipment included, and building specific items such as fire sprinklers and construction type. You will need to include your landlord as “named insured” on the policy so as to protect the building owner from lawsuits resulting from your operation.

The other insurance that causes a lot of concern is Workers Compensation. It only applies to employees and volunteers in the event they are hurt while performing their duties.

Workers comp charges are determined as percentage of the person salary based on the how their job position is categorized in the Insurance Classification Table. The two codes we use are:

8810 Clerical Office Employees, rate 46 cents per 100 dollars
9062 Clubs – all employees, rate 4.70 cents per 100 dollars

Other codes may apply but you can use those to start the conversation with the broker.

Remember that contract employees typically provide their own workers comp insurance and don’t need to be included on your policy. The business owner is also typically excluded.

Non-profits have a couple more options for workers comp because volunteers don’t get a salary making it impossible to charge based on compensation.

Primary insurance coverage runs about $7,000 per year and cover employees and volunteers in the event they are injured on the job. It acts as their primary insurance for the accident.

Or you can select secondary insurance which provides additional protection for volunteers above what ever personal health insurance policy they have. This insurance is considerably less expensive around $500 per year.

When it comes to insurance it pays to build a relationship with your local broker and to have an open and honest conversation. The tips above should help with finding the best classifications for your space but are not the only option. You need to figure out what works best for your space and go with that.

In the end I think you will find the insurance is relatively easy to get and much less expensive that you might have imagined.

I hope this helped to provide some guidance. Whether you are a new or existing space I suggest you get quotes annually from other brokers. For example we just changed Workers Comp brokers and saved $10,000 for the year.

Makerspace Blueprint offers classes and licensing of procedures, standard documents, and class curriculum that will save you years of effort and hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is the secret weapon to running a sustainable makerspace that provides the impact you want.

Go to www.MakerspaceBlueprint.com for more info or click below to schedule your 1-hour consultation call now.

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.