Author: Blancer

Co-working has become a popular way to find office space without having to pay for a full office, especially when you’re the only one using it. Any space with a couple of desks and wireless access can become a co-working space — all you need are a few other people who need room to work and are willing to pay for the privilege.

But co-working spaces aren’t universal: while many major cities now have them, it doesn’t mean that every city does. And, even in those cities where co-working spaces are already established, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that they’re too far away — one of the benefits of working for yourself is avoiding the commute and if commuting is necessary to get to a co-working location, it can be impractical.

Starting your own co-working space can be the easy solution, for several reasons:

Money

Depending on your finances, a co-working space can be a good financial decision. While many co-working spaces can be started as a collective effort, starting one on your own is typically a matter of a little startup capital. It’s a matter of renting a space, adding office furniture and utilities and getting insurance. The costs can vary depending on where you’re located, of course.

But the pay off can be useful. You can set the prices on using your co-working space to cover the costs of operating the space, allowing you to use it at no personal cost. Free office space can be enough to make your efforts worthwhile, but if your goal is to earn an income from your co-working space, it’s not out of the question. Depending on the space and tools you can place at your co-workers’ disposal, you can charge more than your costs. You may also have opportunities to host events or otherwise share your space that would bring in additional income. You may also be able to set things up so that you turn a profit with relatively little work, compared to many other projects — as long as you collect regular fees from your co-workers and pay your bills, there isn’t much else that needs to happen.

Access

Operating the local co-working space offers some definite benefits if you’re trying to get more involved in the community. Provided you do some marketing to the community, you can easily get involved in a lot of local events — even hosting them — which can provide the networking opportunities necessary to move along your main business. While having your own network in place certainly helps make the process of setting up a co-working space easier, once the ball is rolling, your co-working space can expand your network.

It doesn’t have to be a coldly calculated move meant to get access to the cool kids in your community. A co-working space provides a benefit to locals and, by extension, that means you’re doing something good for your co-workers.

Diversification

Lastly, a coworking center means that not all of your eggs are in one basket, as far as your business efforts go. It’s a relatively simple business to set up — you’ll need to do some marketing to make sure that people keep coming in, but that’s about it.

That means that, while you’re working on other projects, you’ve still got something humming along in the background. It may not be a source of a lot of money, but it can make the difference in many situations. On top of that, it can open up opportunities if you find that your original plans don’t wind up the way you expected. That sort of flexibility is invaluable.

In a previous article, I talked about how interviewing experts is one of the best and most leveraged ways to create high-quality, profitable content for your online business. You can use expert interviews to make products, drive traffic, or build your subscriber list.

But the big question I always get asked is: “How do I find an expert to interview?” And that’s almost immediately followed up with, “And how do I get them to say yes?”

So here’s my 10-Step Formula for finding and securing quality guests to interview:

1. Understand the Expert Mindset

Experts want to share what they know, and promote what they’re currently working on. That’s why they’re experts in the first place: they’ve spent time and energy learning something, and enjoy teaching it to others while getting the word out about their latest book or project. You don’t need to sell an expert on the concept of being interviewed — you just need to convince him that he should be interviewed by you.

2. Establish a Professional Image

Before you even approach a single guest, you need to have the means to convey that you’re a professional and worth his or her time. You can do that by putting together a website with a good picture of you in appropriate attire for the niche, and a description of your project. Include some voice samples, clips from previous interviews, or a list of other guests you’ve got lined up. If you’re going for your first guest you won’t have any previous work to showcase, but you can still make a compelling case for why the project is worth being part of, and why you’ll conduct an informative interview the expert can be proud of.

3. Build your Reputation

Write some articles on the topic that you want to conduct interviews about, and post them on your blog or in article directories like EzineArticles. Showing potential guests your articles will prove you’re knowledgeable, or at least passionate, about the subject matter they’re experts in.

4. Increase your Promotion

Press releases also help you establish credibility and build your reputation, and you can submit them, for free or a nominal fee, to sites like PRWeb. Write press releases to announce the start of your project, each time you interview a new expert, when you’ve completed 10 interviews, etc.

5. Build your Subscriber List

While you’re working on collecting experts, you might as well build an audience too — that way you can tell future guests that you have interested people waiting to hear their interviews. One way to do this is to have a link in your article resource box and at the bottom of press releases pointing to your project’s website, and invite visitors to sign up for the VIP notification list to hear about future interviews.

6. Choose your Target Experts

Not every expert will say yes, so plan on asking more than you need. Make a wish list of 5 to 10 people to start, but keep it targeted and go for the best in the field first. For example, if you want to interview social media experts, start with the best-known visionaries on Twitter. If you want to interview golf coaches, choose the ones who have gotten results for big golf stars.

7. Build your Wish List

If you’re stuck for names, do a search for your niche topic followed by the word “expert.” Next, go to Amazon and look for authors who have written books on the subject, and don’t forget to read the reviews. Also search the Radio-TV Interview Report at for appropriate experts who are looking for interview opportunities, and sign up for RTIR sister site Reporter Connection, which allows you to craft a request and have it sent out to experts who subscribe.

8. Remember Everyone’s Favorite Radio Station

Experts are busy, and you need to convey how being interviewed by you will make good use of their time. Before approaching anyone, figure out how you’d answer the question, “What’s In It For Me?” (that’s WIIFM, which they say is everyone’s favorite radio station). But don’t wait for them to ask the question; tell them upfront. It could be a large audience, or it might be that you’ll let the experts use the interview for their own purposes too.

9. Contact the Experts

Once you have a good list, you can finally start asking for interviews. On RTIR or Reporter Connection, the request process is built in; just keep in mind that they’re created for pros, so be professional in your request: state who you are, what you’re working on, why you want to interview that person, and how she’ll benefit. If you only know an expert’s name, search for her official website. Look for a “Contact Us” link or “Media” area that lists a publicist who takes interview requests; or sign up for her newsletter, and look for contact info when it arrives, which might simply mean hitting “reply.” When sending emails, always put “Interview Request” in your subject line. Also try contacting your expert directly on social media sites like Twitter or Facebook. If printed communication doesn’t bring results, look for a phone number and call.

10. Leverage the “Yes” Answers

Eventually one expert will say yes to an interview, and then you can go back to everyone you haven’t heard from and tell them that their peer has agreed. After you record the interview, ask for a testimonial on how you did as an interviewer so you can use that in upcoming requests. If you’ve landed a well-known expert, it’s easier to leverage more. But if the top names say no the first time around, go back to them later when you’ve interviewed more people. Chances are they’ll finally say yes, too.

This process can be continued over and over until you’ve interviewed enough people for your project, and you can do it again any time for future projects. The good news is, the more experts you interview, the easier it is to leverage more interviews and bigger names.