Growing from 1 to 7 Locations with Stratus Offices

Stratus Offices is a coworking brand dedicated to empowering Alberta’s business community with the flexible office space and tailored amenities they need to grow. Launched by a two-person team just under two years ago, this coworking business has already expanded to seven locations and now have a staff of 10.

Seamless access across locations

Growing a coworking business from one location to two is no easy feat. Magnify that to scaling to seven locations and you have a big challenge – and opportunity – in front of you.

Not only has Stratus Offices successfully done this, but they’ve also taken it a step further. With an all-inclusive pricing model, they offer users the ability to access the communities, resources, and services across their locations. “We knew just one location wouldn’t cater to everybody perfectly,” explains Nathaniel. “We wanted to come up with a way to please as many people as possible.”

Optix has supported Stratus with enabling a multi-location network of locations. Its white-labeled app allows users to see space availability in real-time across the Stratus Offices locations. They can then reserve the type of space they need no matter its location with just a tap of a button. And it’s been a big hit.

Automating administrative tasks for sustainable coworking growth

Multi-location management isn’t the only scaling challenge Optix is helping Stratus Offices conquer. With seven locations and counting, their team has a lot on their plates. “We were very, very busy with one location,” shares Nathaniel. “Now we’re trying to do bigger things, so we all take on additional roles too.”

However, with Optix, there are a number of key administrative responsibilities that the team doesn’t have to worry about. Users can self-manage everything through their app without the management team having to lift a finger, including paying for their invoices. Using Optix’s automated billing and invoicing feature, user billing can be automated and tracked across all locations. Users can save credit card information to pay on the go or simply set up auto-payments every month.

A coworking partner who goes above and beyond

At the end of the day, Nathaniel feels that one of the biggest boosts to Stratus Offices’ growth has been Optix’s partnership approach. With service at its core, Optix has consistently focused on listening and looking for ways to support their expansion.

As Stratus Offices has scaled, they’ve hired an independent community manager to own and oversee day-to-day operations at every location. As a result, they needed administrative separation for each venue within their coworking management software, while still providing a unified user experience via a single app. Optix has built this functionality for them and for the other multi-location clients that they support. “The development team has worked really hard with us to get our franchise network model off the ground,” Nathaniel says.