A lot of folks who work in office complexes are tired, overworked and stressed out at work, Spend long hours in front of a computer and suffer from chronic aches (head / neck / back / feet etc)
Most folks deal with it by going for a smoke break, taking a walk around the office, spending time at the coffee shop or eating junk food.
Sometimes, you just need to take a break for a short while before you can perform at your optimum best.
The Proposed Solution: ‘Offline’
‘Offline’ is a space within your office complex where you can do a variety of things to relax, recharge and de-stress yourself. It offers an alternative and healthy option for taking a quick break and recharging yourself. Additional details available at: https://offlinein.in/
We plan to launch a pilot center at DLF Cybercity in Gurgaon soon(ish). We are conducting a short market research survey.
However, we are in a bit of a peculiar problem. Most people have told us that this is a good idea and very few people have told us that this is a ‘bad’ idea or reasons about why this may not work.
Could you put on your Devil’s Advocate Hat and think of reasons as to why it may not work or potential problems ?
Have embedded a small Slideshare presentation above. Incase you are unable to see the presentation, here is the link: Can you screw this Idea ?
If you are based in Delhi or Gurgaon, and work at a large office complex, could you please take out 5 mins of your time and answer some questions for us. Your insights will be much appreciated.
Here is a link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MZPP3GY
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asha chaudhry
neat idea abhik – am sure a lot of us all feel “tired & wired” most of the time. shall definitely take your survey!
Anamika Joshi
Just took your survey.. liked the idea.. Have given some insights in the survey.. may be that will be of some help to you. Best wishes!
Abhik Prasad
Thanks Asha 🙂
Abhik Prasad
Thanks Anamika. Appreciate your insights.
GAURAV MITTAL
Hi Abhik,
I think the concept is excellent & there is definately a market for this. The issues to watch out for are – real estate & associated costs, skilled manpower for the various services & equipment. For real estate, you should consider the model of one of the pre-school chains who enter into agreements with companies for managing day care & pre schools in the premises. Hope this helps. All the best.
Abhik Prasad
Thanks Gaurav.
Our initial model is to tap multi tenant office complexes so that it gives us a wider client base (and the venture currently is too small for a developer to get into a profit sharing model)
However, will definitely keep that in mind once we start approaching single company offices 🙂
Cheers
Khizar
NIce initiative guys…. you can create a market for this… as the opportunities are immense
GAURAV MITTAL
Yes absolutely. Agree. All the best.
Abhik Prasad
Thanks Khizar. Keeping our fingers crossed 🙂
Mandar Joshi
Mind blowing idea Abhik !!! I mean in one of your “Offline”, spaces one can definitely stop their minds from ‘blowing away’, from constant stress and pressure. Our workplaces are becoming monotonous day by day and they are becoming much crowded as well people get irritated when their personal space is encroached and it shows in irritation, friction and conflict in professional and personal life.
Your “Offline”, spaces will definitely help to reboot the mind 🙂 I don’t stay in Delhi however I shall definitely pass the word to my friends there who can give your feedback.
Great idea and wish you all the best !!!!
Abhik Prasad
Thanks Mandar. You pointed out a very important aspect of office life which had not crossed my mind…will def try and ensure that the interiors at Offline are not ‘monotonous’
cheers
abhik
Sridhar V
The idea is definitely serving a need or a problem which we have faced in office settings. I used to work in Gurgaon previously, but currently based in Bangalore.
There are a few questions which I wanted to clarify reg. the service or business model since you have encouraged questions (Devil’s Advocate type).
1. What will be the revenue model? Will you have a fee per sitting or a monthly membership or fees for a specific period (Rs.1500 for 3 months) ?
2. Assuming you are occupying a multi-tenant office space (say like Cybergreens or DLF Square, etc). Will the revenue suffice for the costs incurred?
3. Just extending Question 2, if you have small space the cost may be less but you can offer limited services, but if you go for a large space, the rental costs can be too high. How will you manage this. Eg. if the rate per SF is Rs.120 then a 1,000 SF comes for Rs1,20,000, but if you go for 3,000 SF ti shoots up to Rs.3,60,000.
4. Who pays for it ? Im assuming individuals or is it like a perk/facility that the office provides to employees?
5. Given the current facility/capacity, what is the expected average revenue per month? What will be the min. and max. revenue (under worst and best cases)?
6. Are you looking for any partnerships or alliances to expand to other metros or other cities?
Please feel free answer whatever you can…..prob. some of my questions are not relevant. Just trying to play the role of devil’s advocate to help you explore the model further.
Abhik Prasad
Thanks Sridhar. When I had mentioned the Devil’s advocate type of questions, i had meant it from a usage perspective…i.e. why users might not want to use such a facility 🙂
1.) The revenue model that we are planning at the moment is a mix of base membership charge for basic ‘unlimited’ services + per usage fee incase you want to get something extra. The service offering and pricing is still being finalised and we are also toying with the idea of experimenting with a ‘pay as you wish’ model for the first month
2.) Yes, the revenue has to suffice to not only meet costs but should exceed it so that we can also make a profit 🙂 Our current projections indicate that it will, considering the number of people based in the buildings we are targetting
3.) we are targetting a space of about 2000 sft @ about Rs 120 psft…taking the risk to have a slightly higher capacity to start with.
4.) Primarily, it will be individuals themselves but our survey has indicated a strong preference for company subsidised services so we will be working with HR depts to see if companies can subsidise it.
5.) Anywhere between 5 to 20 lakhs per month but this is still getting fine tuned.
6.) yep, the idea is to ultimately build a chain of such spaces across the country across various formats.
cheers
abhinav madan
Loved your idea. Waiting for you to come to unitech cyber park. Filled up ur survey:-) maybe i can win some free sessions.
Abhik Prasad
Thanks Abhinav.
I had initially thought of UCP but there wasnt any space available at that time. Its definitely on our mind and we will explore it as soon as some space becomes available there.
Stay tuned 🙂