"SUCCESS is NOT a Given"
... and wishful thinking about an over-abundance of customers and a scarcity of competition is almost guaranteed to be a dream - one that if left unchallenged will only turn into a nightmare.
"PLANNING is critial to SUCCESS!"
When choosing your business location the insights provided by Dale Willerton and Jeff Grandfield at The Lease Coach will prove to be most helpful. We appreciate their having provided the following for your thoughtful consideration.
Figuring Out Where Your Business will Thrive, Not Just Survive
By: Jeff Grandfield and Dale Willerton – The Lease Coach
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| Dale Willerton and Jeff Grandfield |
The location an entrepreneur leases is like the
foundation upon every other brick is laid for the business. Commercial tenants understand
this intellectually but often make poor site selection choices based on unit scarcity,
bad timing, or other factors that positively or negatively influence them.
Prospective first-time tenants need to adopt the mindset that if they don’t
find the right location, at the right rental rate, at the right time – they’ll
walk away and not lease the wrong
location. This, however, rarely happens in real life.
When it comes to leasing commercial space, in
general, you get what you pay for – and the more you pay, the better the
location. But if that was an absolute truth,
all a commercial tenant has to do is find the most expensive location for lease
and set up shop. But it’s not an absolute
truth. Commercial tenants frequently sign a long-term lease agreement
agreeing to pay rental rates that could have been negotiated much lower.
When you’re looking for the right property,
having a checklist of desirable criteria can help you stay on track. Here are
just a few of the many factors to consider:
Demographics: Consider the average age of people
living in a particular area, the type of home people are living in (people
living in apartments can’t physically accumulate consumer goods like a large
homeowner can), the mean income and proportion of two-income households, and
ethnicity (leasing space for an Italian coffee shop in an area populated by
Asians who may be more inclined to favor tea over coffee could be a mistake).
Traffic
flow and visibility: Study the number of
pedestrians and motorists at various times throughout the day. Do motorists
have to turn left across a busy intersection to enter your parking lot?
Evaluate which side of the street is better for your business (e.g. liquor
stores do much better on the side of the street where most people are driving
home from work). Lack of
visibility for your store front can cause people to drive right by it,
especially if the traffic is heavy. Trees in a parking lot can block signage.
Some landlords overbuild their pad sites near the road, thereby blocking the
visibility of the retail plaza behind. Is there a bare patch of ground between
your desired site and the roadway? If so, you can safely assume that someday
your landlord will lease that pad site or construct a building there that
blocks visibility to your signage and store front.
Competition:
If you don’t know who your competition is and where they’re located, you can’t
hope to compete with them. Not only should you be acutely aware of your
competitor’s services, products, and pricing, you should have someone “secret
shop” their business, try their products and/or services, and report back to
you about the experience. As a bonus, have the secret shopper ask your
competitor about your business (if
you’re already open) to discover what is being said about you. You also have to
think about future competitors. This
means anticipating where your competitor may lease space or set up shop in the
years ahead.
Remember that there are two sides to the
competition coin:
1) Join
them. Locating beside or near your competition to siphon off their customers is
a legitimate site selection strategy for some businesses. In many cities, there
are “restaurant row” and “fashion mall” areas that attract many shoppers
because so many similar tenants are close to each other.
2) Avoid them. Locating away from the
competition often makes sense to personalized and/or healthcare businesses
(e.g. fitness clubs, hair stylists, and/or tanning salons). Customers tend to
be loyal to these businesses because they can only use one at a time.
Dale Willerton and Jeff Grandfield - The Lease Coach are Commercial Lease Consultants who work exclusively for tenants. Dale and Jeff are professional speakers and co-authors of Negotiating Commercial Leases & Renewals FOR DUMMIES (Wiley, 2013). Got a leasing question? Need help with your new lease or renewal? Call 1-800-738-9202, e-mail DaleWillerton@TheLeaseCoach.com or visit www.TheLeaseCoach.com.
What's been your experience?
Feel free to add your comments and thank you in advance
for sharing this post with those in your circle of contacts!
QUESTION: When was the last time you took a look at your BUSINESS PLAN?
IF it wasn't within the last 6 months ... let's take a look at it together!
Be ready for when the next business opportunity 'knocks at your door' ... don't delay!
Let's make sure that you're ready to move forward!
Be ready for when the next business opportunity 'knocks at your door' ... don't delay!
Let's make sure that you're ready to move forward!
For more information see:
"Option 5 – “PVS – Business Plan Review”
"Option 5 – “PVS – Business Plan Review”
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