How to monetize your Coliving space

Gareth and Daniel peel back the layers on monetization strategies that aim to keep your coliving venture vibrant and profitable. Discover the secret sauce to balancing revenue generation with maintaining an inclusive, dynamic space that benefits both residents and the local community. We talk rent, revenue-sharing, and the creative uses of communal areas that can boost your bottom line.

Dive into the heart of coliving spaces as we explore their symbiotic relationship with local communities. Opening up amenities like coworking spaces and gyms to non-residents isn't just about expanding your revenue streams—it's about crafting a community hub that thrives on integration and mutual benefits. Learn how to strike the perfect balance between exclusivity for residents and accessibility for locals, all while keeping the cash flow healthy and sustainable.

Venture into the groundbreaking realm of a ColivingDAO Federation, where autonomy meets collective strength. As each community in the federation flourishes, so does the value of your coliving space, creating a continuous revenue stream even as residents transition between locations. Wrap up with us as we reflect on these innovative concepts, urging you to think differently about community building and the financial longevity of your coliving business. Join the conversation and be part of this transformative movement in coliving.

Transcript

Daniel: 0:04

Alright, welcome everyone to another episode of ColivngDAO Insights. It's your co-host, daniel, and I'm joined today, as usual, by my co-host, gareth. Hi Gareth, hey Dan, great to be back, great to have you here as well. And today we'll be talking about something quite important, actually, we'll be talking about how to monetize your co-living space.

Daniel: 0:26

This is critical because I hear about so many people that want to start the co-living business but then they're not quite sure how to make money of that. And this is important, not just to earn, but also simply to make sure that the co-living is sustainable, that the co-living is actually financially viable. So it is a challenge for a lot of people, a lot of prospective operators, a lot of existing operators as well. I know a lot of operators that sometimes they're not quite sure how to make money beyond that. The obvious tendency money right, the money that they can earn through rental payments.

Daniel: 1:02

For anyone who's thinking to start a co-living, the good news is, yes, there are many more ways to make money rather than just charging money for rent, and this is exactly what we'll be discussing today. We also gonna be showing you how sustainability is a big factor, also from a financial point of view. We've spoken a lot about sustainability in general and the benefits on the environment and business and so on, but today you'll see exactly why this is also financially beneficial, and we'll then introduce to you the concept of why the fair shares comments effectively have a lot of financial benefits as well, and this is something we'll discuss today at the end. Gareth looks like a pretty exciting episode.

Gareth: 1:49

Yeah, this is a really important episode, because how to make money and how to monetize your co-living as an operator is obviously one of the main reasons that you're there and setting up and making money enables us to build or the operators to build a very healthy and thriving co-living community, which, of course, is the number one aim for any co-living operator who's looking to really make a difference in the world in terms of building amazing new communities.

Daniel: 2:20

Absolutely, and let's start by making an important distinction here, because there's multiple models that are viable with co-living and some co-living starters, the operators. They may be thinking okay, I have a space that I can utilize for co-living, so it's my own property, my own real estate, let me repurpose that for co-living, and this is definitely one way of doing that. Or simply, let's say, I have a little bit of a budget, let me buy a property and do this. Or maybe you have investors, and that's also fine. One thing that we obviously incorporating in the co-living now launchpad platform is the ability to find investors as well to start a co-living business.

Daniel: 3:05

But in general, you can definitely do a co-living in a number of different ways. So one being owning the property and starting a co-living business utilizing the property that you or the business owns. The other way of doing that is by renting a property, so utilizing a property that is not yours, that is not part of the same co-living business and therefore there's going to be a separate landlord. So we already have these two distinctions. We already have this distinction, two different cases owning the property, so the operator also being a landlord, or having a separate landlord and operator If that's the case. So when the operator is separate from the landlord, how things usually happen is that either the landlord is earning a rental fee and that's a very straightforward concept You're the operator. You want to run a co-living business. You just rent the property, you pay rent. There's a fixed sum you pay every month might be yearly, depending on the agreement you have and then you just run your business from there. Everything you make as a profit or the revenue, it's all yours because you're simply paying rent to the landlord. Another way of doing so is to have a revenue share agreement. That's a way to kind of de-risk it to an extent. If you're the operator and you don't want to take the big risk of just paying a fixed sum to the landlord, you can say, hey, why don't we actually share the revenue? And on the flip side, the landlord might like the agreement because they might say, okay, maybe I will not have a guaranteed rent. However, I might make a lot more money if the co-living is successful. So this is a way to align incentives a little bit and say, hey, let's make sure the business is successful.

Daniel: 4:52

And the split could vary. I mean 60%, 70% in favor of the landlord. It's quite typical, but there can be different splits possible. What matters is, in this case, the revenue is shared between the operator and the landlord. And the third case is when, actually, the landlord is effectively earning the revenue of the co-living and then the operator is simply charging a fee.

Daniel: 5:17

So if you're the co-living operators, you can say hey, mr Landlord, you have real estate, why don't you let me use it? I'm going to run a co-living in your property, you pay me a fee and then you keep the revenue of the co-living space. It's pretty straightforward. There's different ways of doing that, whether you use any of these three models or whether you actually the owner of the property as well. What matters is that to make all these models viable, you'll need to make money, you'll need to earn revenue, and that is why today we'll be discussing how to effectively make money from a co-living space, because the more money there is, the more money you effectively have to run the space and make the experience for your residents better and better and grow the co-living business. So, gareth, let's get started with the different ways to generate revenue. The first obvious one is rent, right? So, gareth, what can we say about rent?

Gareth: 6:18

Yeah, so the rent is the most straightforward option, right, and in a co-living space. What is slightly more unique about rent is that often co-living operators opt to give their residents the benefit of an all-in-one rental payment which can cover utilities and a few others to make living in the co-living easier and better for the resident. And then, in terms of the revenue stream for the operator, that's a simple monthly payment that will come in and also cover some of those utilities or basic costs, and that's the very first level of the revenue stream, the most obvious one, right. Of course, if you open a co-living, you're going to have rental income from your residents.

Daniel: 7:03

Exactly so. That's pretty straightforward. So much to say other than very, very well pointed out. Yes, it is typically an inclusive fee. So one, all you'll have.

Daniel: 7:17

One fee that covers bills, which is a major, massive advantage for the resident. Obviously it's not just rent, because if that was the only source of income, it would be a pretty limited model. So a second layer, which is still quite obvious, but a little bit less obvious than the first one, is providing extra services. So once residents pay rent, that's not all the money they're willing to pay. They might be willing to pay more money because they might want more services, and some of these services can be provided in-house. Now imagine some of the people they'd like to have, for example, dry cleaning, ironing services, something around those lines. Then it's perfectly possible for a quality operator to offer these services in-house and say hey, if you have anything that you want to have ironed or dry cleaned, you can leave it at reception, you'll have it ready within a couple of days or less and you just pay a fee.

Daniel: 8:13

There's more services that can be provided as well. You can be creative here. Really anything that your community would like to have. You could have an in-house massage therapist, for example, hairdresser, beautician. Also, especially for short-term cold living spaces, having an airport shuttle or a taxi service can be quite interesting as well. And obviously, food and drinks. A lot of cold living spaces offer in-house food and drink, and for a relatively affordable fee, people can just eat or drink in the space as well. So, gareth, this is a pretty obvious way, but sometimes overlooked as well. Sometimes a lot of cold living operators they really miss the opportunity to add some extra services and what happens then is that residents end up buying these things elsewhere and this is revenue that the cold living operator could have kept in the first place.

Gareth: 9:08

Right, that's right, and for residents this is huge right. I mean, we lived in a cold living and to have services on your doorstep is incredibly convenient. It's a really nice enhancer for the cold living experience for residents, and so as an operator, you really want to plug into that as an advantage and provide extra services to generate more revenue streams. So it's a really it's a big win-win between the operator and the resident. Here there are loads of extras you could think of in there. As you said, dan, you can have airport shuttles, beauticians, hairdressers, massage therapists. You may even have some kind of postal service, because going to a post office from where you live in a cold living, a cold living space, it might be quite far away actually, and if you can have a way to post parcels and letters and things, that was one thing that I found would have been really convenient in the cold living space where we live. An operator, you know why not take advantage of these opportunities.

Daniel: 10:16

Exactly. Another one that comes to mind is a translation services. If it's a country with a local language that sometimes it's not very easy for people to understand, there could be a translation service for residents and so on. So you can be creative with that. What matters is that obviously has to be something that is worth offering in-house, because if only one person per year wants ironing, then maybe it doesn't make a lot of sense to set up the service in the first place. But if you notice that a lot of people ask a reception hey, do you know where a dry cleaner is nearby Then there is an actual significant demand for that. You could even survey or ask your residents if it's something like having a house, because it does add a lot of value.

Daniel: 11:01

Some operators might be wrongly thinking oh, I'm extracting money from people. It's not fair. But the reality is you're providing a very useful service, because imagine having to go and find a dry cleaner, potentially in a new country, when people don't speak the local language, and sometimes it might be quite far, and having to travel far with the clothes that have just been ironed. It's not really ideal. So the advantage for your residents to have everything in one place it's major, and it might even allow you to charge a little bit more than the general market average for the services and still have very happy customers as a result.

Daniel: 11:41

So that's a big one, and there will be cases where it's not really worth having your service provided in-house, and in that case what you can do is simply partner with external providers where you can still earn a percentage. So, for example, rather than having your own food and drinks, or beside your own food and drinks, you could partner with a restaurant nearby. You could partner with a dry cleaner nearby and say hey, whenever someone from my community comes to you, why don't you give them a little discount? And also we get a little referral fee. And it's a good deal for them because they get more customers, and it's a good deal for you because you can monetize that, and it's a good deal for the residents because you are providing even more services. So, gareth, this is a third layer, effectively a third idea sharing revenue with the partners, right?

Gareth: 12:39

Yeah, absolutely, and this one's really exciting for residents as well as operators, because, again, you can imagine a much wider range of services that partner companies can provide that wouldn't be convenient to arrange in-house. So amazing events can be organized music events, well-being events, yoga, reading, literature, you name it film clubs. There are partner companies that provide all kinds of entertainment for residents and, of course, food and drink. Food and drink is a big part of everyone's daily life, and so an on-site restaurant could be a partner and the operator can really benefit from this amazing cornucopia of opportunity for the residents by taking a percentage of event fees, maybe a percentage of the restaurant revenue and profits, and by doing it in this way it aligns incentives a lot better too, and we'll talk about about some of the specific advantages in the Co-Living Dial model. That goes above and beyond this, but this alignment with the interests of the partner companies is a really big one and a great way to generate extra revenue and also enhance the experience for Co-Living residents.

Daniel: 13:55

What's beautiful about this as well is that you're effectively getting the local community involved, and the local community can benefit from that. Sometimes having a new Co-Living space in an existing community can be perceived a little bit as an intrusion from the locals. Imagine having a bunch of foreigners coming, maybe partying, maybe just speaking foreign languages. Some local communities might be feeling a little bit uneasy about that. But having partnerships means, hey, I'm bringing people here, we're all going to benefit from that. It's going to be more services to provide, it's going to be more customers for everyone, and it's a great way to integrate even further with the local community. So definitely an advantage for everyone there.

Daniel: 14:40

Another thing that can be done and again, this is very, very possible, I've seen many successful Co-Living spaces do this is offering services to non-residents as well. So just because it's a Co-Living business, where the primary business is to rent spaces to live and offer services to people that live in the Co-Living space, why not offer services to other people as well? For example, if you have a co-working area in your Co-Living space, you may be thinking about potentially allowing non-residents to use the Co-Living space too. Of course, you want to make sure that the membership feel is protected. You want to make sure that people don't feel that it becomes impersonal because there's a lot of externals. But if you manage the numbers correctly, if you only allow a small number of people and you make sure it's a good fit for the local community as well, then there's an opportunity there to effectively extend some of the areas not saying all the areas, but some of the areas, some of the services to other people too.

Daniel: 15:40

And I've seen Co-Living spaces successfully have non-residents share the co-working facilities and this created a very nice atmosphere as well, because it really extends the horizons of the, the whole Co-Living community, where people can also get to know people that don't necessarily live in the same space but still live nearby. So that can be an advantage, and this can be extended to other things as well. Food and drink obviously can be sold to other people, to guests, so, non-sincerely, people living there. If there's a gym in the Co-Living space, there's an opportunity to have non-residents use the gym for a fee, while, for example, the residents are getting the gym for free or included in the same package and so on, just like having events or different things. Gareth, what else can we say about this?

Gareth: 16:29

Yeah, just to say that this is a really great opportunity to also integrate with the local community so that a co-living space doesn't become a bubble in and of itself where it feels very separate from the local community.

Gareth: 16:42

Because there's a danger, if you provide lots of amazing in-house services and there isn't that integration with the local community, that the co-living becomes like a bubble that is separate from the surrounding area. But this is a really great one to get to offer services to non-residents. Some locals might be looking for co-working spaces, which is really popular right now as a lot of people are working from home more often. Some of the local residents might really appreciate that they go in and they work in the space and then you can imagine they might see an event that they like as well, an event that is being run for residents in the co-living space but also open to non-residents. They may stay and then socialize and meet people from the co-living community. It's a really nice one to integrate as well as make more money for the co-living operator and integrate with the local community and build those links.

Daniel: 17:37

Exactly, and it's important to do this in a way that is balanced. For example, if you notice that the co-working space is already a capacity, then you may not want to add more people using the same space at peak hours, but maybe you notice that there are some hours where the space is actually underutilized and that can be an opportunity to bring in a few more people. So you might even sell access only a certain hour. Same for the gym, for example. If you realize that in the morning the gym is full, then everyone is working and no one is in the gym. At lunchtime, for example, or before lunch or after lunch, you may offer access to the local community, but only at the hours where the gym is not full.

Daniel: 18:19

And it's important to keep at least some spaces only for the community, because, after all, you don't want to dilute the community. It's all about enhancing, not taking anything away from the community. So, for example, I've seen some spaces sharing the co-working facilities in gym but not sharing other spaces such as a sauna or a swimming pool or places where people prefer to be with people that they already know or that they actually live together with. So it's all about understanding what the community wants to find the right balance, and this can really be a big win-win for everyone. Another possibility, gareth, is having commercial spaces that can be hired, whether this space is hired by externals or whether this space is hired by the resident themselves. This is an opportunity to increase revenue as well. So having spaces, gareth, you want to expand on this?

Gareth: 19:20

Yeah. So a nice way to sum this up is to have commercial spaces for hire effectively, and what you want to do here as a co-living operator to make the maximum use of spaces that you have that are available to do hiring is to make them multi-purpose so that they cover both socially orientated events and professionally orientated events. And the way to do that is to build multi-purpose modular rooms so you get maximum utilisation of the space in the time that it's available and also you can then monetise it better. And it's really important here just to highlight, as you said before, daniel, to make sure that this integrates well with the community residents' needs in the co-living space. So to have an amazing space available for commercial hire is great because it brings in revenue for the operator, but it's also good to really think about how the residents could also use that space. Maybe they can use it in the downtime between events, or maybe that space is specifically reserved for only resident use at certain times and certain days, maybe as weekend chill-out zones, for example, is a really good one for residents that they would value a lot, or for resident-held events. But you can definitely if you do this in a sensitive way and an integrated way is you can use that space and use it effectively and monetise it for outside use with commercial partners where they can come in and run their own events, and that can be for both non-residents or it could be for residents too. So there's a lot of flexibility there.

Gareth: 21:04

But if you have a good space, why not make it multi-purpose and why not make it modular? And you can think about inside and outside spaces. In this way you might have a really lovely sports facility, tennis courts and the outside spaces. You might have a nice garden that's good to walk around or to even hold events in if people are looking for outside public spaces to hold events. So there's a lot of opportunity here and a lot of creativity here. And getting that right balance between the resident needs and the co-living operator needs is going to be key. And of course, in the co-living DAW model because residents have a real voice and power to decide and have an input into these kinds of decisions then that integrated balance actually comes through in the co-living DAW model itself. It enables that balance between the operator and the commercial hire space needs and so, yeah, that's a big one to think really carefully about how to integrate residents' needs, but also maximize extra revenue generating opportunities for the operator.

Daniel: 22:15

Yeah, that's a great way of putting it. Thinking along these lines, it can definitely be very beneficial for a lot of operators, whether it's new, prospective operators that haven't started yet and just trying to make a plan to see if things are viable in the first place or how far things can go, or existing operators. Maybe you're currently running a co-living business right now and you kind of have this feeling that you could get more out of it, but you're not quite sure how. And by getting more, you give more as well, meaning providing a better service or more services. You can generate more revenue and, at the same time, enhance the experience for the residents.

Daniel: 22:53

Another big element again, if we start really thinking creatively on how to make more money from a co-living space, something that can be very beneficial for everyone is the introduction of sponsorships. So especially if you have a themed co-living. So if your co-living space is attracting a specific category of people maybe that's digital nomads, say. Even more specifically, that could be programmers, software developers, that could be musicians, that could be Instagrammers, that could be artists, that could be you name it. Whatever your co-living space is, whoever your co-living space is attracting in terms of a customer base, you could have a big value proposition for sponsors. So let's say, for example, you have a co-living with a number of musicians living in the same space. Why not partner specifically through a sponsorship agreement with a company that makes music instruments? And then what would happen is you could let them advertise and then you would just charge a fee for advertising. Maybe they'll have a banner in your co-living space, maybe the name of one of the areas will be given after them. So imagine just having a whole community space named after this particular brand for a period of time. You could have flyers handed over.

Daniel: 24:22

So there's a number of things that can be done. Really, if you let a company advertise for services, products to residents, and the more theme, the more niche really, the more specific your co-living is, the more value you're giving to someone who's advertising to your community and your community will find it useful as well. So if you have a co-living space where no one really plays music, then they won't find it very useful, but if it's very themed, then people are really passionate about that. Having something like that can really be a big advantage. So having sponsorships can enhance again the experience of the co-living residents as well. So this is another very big one that can be used by co-living operators. Gareth, do you want to add anything about sponsorships?

Gareth: 25:12

Yeah, just a brief line, Dan, on this is again like a turbo booster for both the operator and the residents, because if you have that themed co-living maybe it's a building of athletes, for example they're all in it together and getting that network benefit of being interested in the sport that they're involved in and maximizing performance.

Gareth: 25:32

So you can really imagine the benefit of having sponsors that are providing better nutrition products, better recovery products for athletes and opportunities to go away on training camps and all sorts of things. So they're really surrounded by that thing that they're passionate about and that they're pursuing and they get to live it. It's like a lived experience of the theme and the reason you're there. That's a really big turbo booster for the community and it adds huge value for the residents and for the operators. So, again, probably one that's really underutilized because at the moment we're not seeing a lot of strongly themed co-living communities, tend to be a diverse mix, some digital nomads working in different spaces, different professions, and so this is an opportunity that's maybe quite untapped because we haven't seen many examples of strongly themed co-living communities yet.

Daniel: 26:35

That's true, that's absolutely true. I think themed communities is a massive opportunity that is significantly underutilized and I'm pretty sure we'll see this concept grow more and more. And I've seen a lot of people actually even argue that people are not willing to pay enough for communities. People are not willing to pay enough to be surrounded by like-minded people. But I firmly believe the main reason is simply because communities are not niche enough. If the value proposition is to come and join like-minded people, then obviously that's too weak. How do people even know that they'll be without like-minded people? It's very lazy things to say, but when communities are really themed, then we've already seen in practice, through the existence of clubs and networking events and so on, that people are willing to pay, sometimes even a lot of money, without even needing to reside anywhere, just for the opportunity to be surrounded by those people. So it's all about value proposition really making sure that you're conveying actual, real value and not just simply using a wishy-washy expressions like enjoying the community of like-minded people or anything of that nature. So definitely massive opportunity there that can be monetized in a number of ways. And let's move now to some other monetization opportunities that are possible once you decide to incorporate through a fissures' commerce company.

Daniel: 28:05

Now, here at Call of Endow, we really like to take things further. We want to go one step beyond. We are not just satisfied with the norm, we want to really take things to the next level. So what we do is we've identified the fissures' commerce as the ideal way to incorporate a co-living company and many other companies as well, not just necessarily co-living companies, and this is something we discussed in many other episodes, but today I'll now share with Gareth what the advantages are from a monetization point of view. So, if you want even more ways to monetize your co-living space, incorporating it as a fissures' commerce company would allow you to have multiple extra revenue streams. One in this case is effectively being able to earn dividends from the Call of Endow Enabler company. Now, I know this requires a little bit of explanation. Now, gareth, because you're a director of the Fissures Association. What can you say specifically talking about revenue for the fissures? What can this enable and why specifically co-living and fissures?

Gareth: 29:21

Yeah, absolutely Dan.

Gareth: 29:24

So for those who haven't listened to some of our previous podcasts, co-living DAO enables a federation of co-living communities and each co-living community in that federation is its own company, and we use a very unique incorporation called the Fissures Commons incorporation.

Gareth: 29:43

And so the Enabler company for co-living DAO is a Fair Shares Commons company, that's us, but also each of the co-living community companies that are in the co-living DAO Federation also need to be incorporated as Fair Shares Commons and in that way they can plug in to our Federation and access all of the extra benefits you get as an operator through being part of the Federation. And so the first thing you mentioned there, dan, was the dividends. And each co-living DAO community company is its own company, as I said, but they own shares in co-living DAO as the enabler company. And so if the value of the co-living DAO enabler company rises over time as more co-living communities join the Federation, then the partner companies, those community companies, will benefit in that, because the value of the shares of co-living DAO will go up and they could receive dividends as another revenue stream. So there's another bonus revenue stream that would only exist for a co-living operator if they're part of the co-living DAO Federation of Communities, and that's quite an amazing benefit, right Dan?

Daniel: 30:59

Absolutely, because you'll have co-living DAO as an enabler company. And when co-living DAO effectively is doing well, what's usually happening is that a share price goes up usually right. So the ability to earn shares in the co-living DAO company and I mean, even if the share price goes down, really just getting shares anyway. So it doesn't really matter at the point. What matters is that you're receiving shares of a company that effectively are yours, and there's a couple of things you can do with the shares, but one, as we mentioned, is earn dividends from that. So if co-living DAO is paying dividends, then you can earn dividends because, effectively you become a shareholder of co-living DAO as well and, as you remain in the same ecosystem and Federation of Communities, you keep earning more shares. So, regardless of the price fluctuation, regardless of the economic conditions, you will be receiving shares on a regular basis and this enables earning dividends if co-living DAO is paying dividends, or it will allow you to effectively sell the shares if you so wish, like you're not forced to keep the shares forever If you wanna sell those shares and you sell the shares, you will be able to monetize that too. So that's a massive advantage compared to the normal type of incorporation where you don't get anyone else's dividends or shares.

Daniel: 32:30

In this case, you effectively are part of the family, you're part of the network, the Federation, and this is rewarded in a number of ways, including receiving shares Another big thing. And now this is not specifically a formal revenue per se, but what this is is an opportunity to receive money if the other forms of revenue are not really quite going too well. So, gareth, there is a very specific profit share in functionality in the co-living DAO Federation. How is this beneficial for? Especially for new operators, or operators that have been struggling and maybe have been a little bit unsure whether they are able to continue to operate, or even operators that are doing very well, but life is unpredictable. And what if you're doing very well and then something happens, and then, before you continue doing well, you might have to overcome some hardship? What can the Federation do in this case, gareth?

Gareth: 33:36

Yeah, dan. So this is a great one as a safety net for members of the co-living DAO Federation, those communities that are part of the Federation. In each community co-living DAO company will pay into a profit share pool, so they'll pay a tiny percentage of their profits into this profit sharing pool and that's across the whole Federation. So if there's 100 co-living DAO companies or communities out there, all 100 of them every year will be paying a tiny percentage of their profits into the pool, and that pool can then be used as emergency funding and it can be drawn down if needed.

Gareth: 34:17

If, for example, as you said, dan, there are other revenues dropped for whatever reason and this can happen at any time right, you can have a co-living in a particular city where that city is undergoing some sort of big political change, or maybe it's just an event that has resulted in residents finding it difficult to move to that country, and so there's a shock and the revenues from rent go down, for example. But if it's a temporary shock, this would be a very good reason to say to the Federation hey, we just need a little bit of temporary help. Can we pull some money out of the profit pool to supplement some of the revenues that we're not getting at the moment. And hey, we can show you we've got a strong business and this is just a temporary shock and we're gonna get through it. And the Federation will then pay some of that profit pool to that co-living DAO community company. Keep it going through the hard times and then it will come out the other end much stronger.

Daniel: 35:21

Exactly so. This is effectively as good as any form of revenue, really, because the whole point of revenue is obviously to make money, but also to make sure that the operations can sustain themselves and the whole project is financially viable. So in case some forms of revenue temporarily fail to provide the necessary resources, knowing that there is a pot that can be utilized for these circumstances is extremely beneficial as well. So very important safety net there. Another big advantage is the fact that by being in a network, all of a sudden there's an opportunity to monetize even when people leave your community, believe it or not. Right now, if you operate a co-living in a traditional way, when someone is leaving, that's it they're gone. You're not gonna make any more money off that. However, if you are part of a network of co-living communities, you can still keep the value, and not only knowing that the person is still part of co-living now. So effectively they can easily come back in the future because they're still living in the same ecosystem. So that's a very important one psychologically and practically as well. But the other advantage is that if the resident of your community decides to move to another community, there may be an arrangement in place where you actually could earn a referral fee.

Daniel: 36:48

Now, normally there is a marketing cost for co-living communities to attract new residents, and we make things easier with the co-living now platform as well. So through the marketplace it will be easier for operators to find residents. But there is generally a cost, especially for traditional co-living. But when a resident comes from another community, why not pay a referral fee? What this means is that, okay, the new community, they're saving the marketing cost, they're saving the cost of sale, so they can pay a referral fee to the community that has referred the person. So if a person is going from one community to another, the community might still get some benefits from that. So that's just an example. There's multiple advantages that the network gives, but we wanted to mention this because we want to specify that some of these advantages may well be financial as well. So multiple opportunities for revenue thanks to the fair shares comments incorporation. Alright, guys.

Gareth: 37:53

Yeah, absolutely so. It's all about adding extra value and by being a co-living operator that is part of the co-living DAO Federation, you can access these extra revenue generation capabilities and also have backup emergency funding if needed. So really powerful additional monetization and additional value added, which is what we're all about, right? Dan?

Daniel: 38:19

Exactly. So. That's a big, big one. So I hope we were able to really express some of the key benefits of being part of a fair shares commons ecosystem, especially from a financial point of view. Today, and before we wrap up, I actually wanted to mention sustainability, which is a big thing. We mentioned it before as well, and I wanted to go a little bit more in depth with Gareth, who's a major expert in this field. When it comes to sustainability, there's a lot of advantages for the environment and so on, but there are also financial advantages. So, gareth, how can sustainability have a positive impact on revenue too?

Gareth: 38:58

Thanks, dan. It's good to talk as being a major expert in sustainability. Thanks for the enhancement to my credibility there. Yeah, so sustainability is a big passion of mine and it's a big part of co-living DAO, as we spoke about on a previous podcast. Protecting the natural world and actually enhancing and regenerating it is possible thanks to the co-living DAO model. We won't go too much into detail, but what we're talking about here is added value. Again, right, and how do co-living operators add more value to what they're offering for residents in order to generate more revenue?

Gareth: 39:37

Now, this one is also probably a little bit overlooked because it's a bit indirect. So if you think about a co-living DAO community that makes a real effort to enhance blue and green spaces inside and outside the building so nice gardens, maybe some tree cover, maybe they restore a small lake or even build a pond or add a roof garden feature these kinds of features, being closer to nature for residents, add a huge amount of well-being. There are a lot of studies in health and well-being that show that people who are closer to nature are healthier and there's multiple reasons for that and their well-being is better. So having these blue and green spaces enhanced by a co-living DAO community operator adds this extra value for residents and maybe they're even willing to pay higher rent in order to stay there because there's a beautiful garden where they can go whenever they have some spare time and sit and reflect, read a book, go into the sunshine if the weather is nice. Just you know. It's a feel-good factor and things are much better when you have access to these spaces.

Gareth: 40:52

It may also reduce resident turnover, which reduces your marketing costs, and I know we're not too focused on costs here. We're more focused on how do you add value. But think about those blue and green spaces as being really big value ads for your residents and that will come through in the value that you gain indirectly and all those other revenue streams, and one of them in particular was when we mentioned the commercial spaces for hire. If you have an amazing garden for use with a small space that's suitable for events, you could also use that as an operator and occasionally monetize it for local residents, local community residents, as well as the co-living dial residents so you can generate those extra income streams by really taking care of blue and green spaces, so by taking care of nature, the co-living operator also gets some more added value, and the residents benefit too. So win, win, win all the way across.

Daniel: 41:55

That's awesome. We love talking about the triple win and we like it when it's financial as well, because I know a lot of people have objections on time. So, yeah, the planet, we want to help nature, community, everything. What about money? And here we're really demonstrating that there can be financial advantages for everyone involved as well. And if you're a co-living operator and you care about sustainability, this is exactly how you can effectively make sure that you profit while also improving the surroundings, improving nature and the rest of the community as well. So it's great that there is this opportunity.

Daniel: 42:32

And just to sum up, I think right now, if you're thinking about starting a co-living or if you're a co-living operator and you were looking for more inspiration to find more revenue streams, I hope you got at least one or two new ideas, probably more than that, and maybe write it down. If you got an idea and you think, oh, I probably could implement that, write it down. Or you can schedule some time for a little brainstorming session and think how can I apply what I've heard today to my particular co-living operation? That could be a very interesting thing to do as well. You don't want to just let these ideas come and go. You want to make sure you implement something at least. So just write it down and you're going to turn words into action. So I hope you learned something today, and Gareth. Some final thoughts before wrapping up this session.

Gareth: 43:28

Yeah, thanks, dan. So, as I said before, this is all about added value, right? So if you look at all of these revenue generating opportunities, you can see that there's a theme and there's a trend across them. If you want to really improve your monetization of your co-living space, when you think about enhancing your resident's life, their lives then you're also enhancing your opportunities for revenue generation. And then, if you want to enhance it even further and add more value, think about becoming part of the co-living DAL Federation of Co-living Communities to turbocharge some of these value adds and generate even more revenue and make the most of your space and also build an amazing community for your residents. So, yeah, think carefully about the value add and how you can make yourself much more unique and build a community that really stands out in the world. Join the Co-living DAL Federation of Communities.

Daniel: 44:26

Awesome. Great Gareth, to share these thoughts. Thanks everyone for listening. I hope you enjoyed this session today and I hope you really get something concrete out of this and, as usual, we'll be back next week with more. So make sure you stay subscribed, or subscribe if you haven't yet, and we will be back with you next week.