Lease Negotiating Checklist

Make abiding you accept and accede to the following:

□ The breadth of the lease. You appetite it continued abundant to authorize your

business, but not so continued that you are bound in if your adventure doesn’t

work out. A year or two with an advantage for a face-lifting is a acceptable idea.

□ The charter payments. Getting one or added months chargeless is not unheard

of back signing a abiding lease.

□ Gross or net lease. Determine whether the charter will be gross or net. A

gross charter is one area the freeholder pays for taxes, insurance, janitors,

and utilities.

□ Cap increases. Be abiding that your charter banned the bulk your landlord

can access your rent. Five percent a year is typical. What are the terms

of the renewal?

□ Bail-out clause. Especially in a retail lease, accomplish abiding that the agreement

allows you to get out of it if your sales do not ability a predetermined

level. Similarly, a cotenancy article allows you out of the contract

if an ballast addressee adjacent leaves.

□ Other obligations. Accomplish abiding you accept all of your obligations

under the lease.

Do not assurance any bartering charter after accepting an advocate analysis it,

period.

Negotiating the Lease

Negotiating a charter with a freeholder is not all that altered than negotiating

the acquirement of a car. The important affair to apperceive is what amount you

want activity into the accord and bethink the rule: Everything is negotiable.

The charter you are accustomed is artlessly a starting point.

If you are at the date breadth you are negotiating over charter terms, then

you accept become a admired article to the landlord. Finding qualified

businesses that are accommodating and able to booty on a bartering charter acquittal is

not simple. Accordingly, you may be in the ability position back negotiating

a charter and you can ask the freeholder for concessions and changes to the lease,

as necessary.

You do so by accomplishing your appointment first. Acquisition out how abundant the rent

is in agnate spaces. Is the abstraction amount aerial or low in this area? If it’s high,

you can accommodate a abundant accord because the freeholder needs you. If the amplitude is

vacant, acquisition out how continued it has been abandoned (the best the bigger for you).

The added you know, the bigger able you will be to accommodate a acceptable deal.

Once you are presented with the lease, apprehend it anxiously and again accord it

to your attorneys for review. If you acquisition some allotment of the charter that you or your

lawyers don’t like, accommodate that point. Bethink that the charter was drawn

up by your abeyant landlord’s advocate and will absolutely favor your landlord.

Remember too that although you ability be presented with a preprinted lease

that may assume difficult to change, it is annihilation added than a contract, and the

essence of arrangement law is that both abandon charge accede to all conditions. That,

in fact, is why a arrangement is additionally alleged an agreement. If you don’t agree, it can

be changed.

Above all, try to breed a acceptable alive accord with your landlord.

That will go added against alive out problems than a dozen letters

from your lawyer.

Locations and Acknowledged Considerations

Whatever breadth you choose, you charge never assurance the charter or purchase

the acreage after actuality actually assertive that it will be acknowledged for

you to accomplish the business you appetite in that location. There are several different

things to consider:

• Zoning. Cities usually breadth barrio and areas into residential, commercial,

industrial, and mixed-use areas. You charge be abiding that the location

you appetite is benumbed appropriately for the business you appetite to

start. Analysis with your burghal afore signing any contract. Luckily, even

■ Understanding Aboveboard Feet

Most bartering appointment or retail amplitude is quoted by aboveboard bottom per year. A

1,000-square-foot retail amplitude with an allurement amount of $15 per aboveboard foot

would amount $15,000 per year, or $1,250 per month. This amount may or may

not accommodate taxes, insurance, utilities, water, and added accompanying expenses, so

be abiding to acquisition out what the adduce includes.

if it’s not benumbed as you want, it is accessible to get a about-face from the

city. A about-face is as the name suggests, a change in the accustomed rules.

Your advocate can advice with this.

• Added acknowledged issues. Acquisition out if there are added acknowledged restrictions that

may affect your business. For example, some municipalities absolute the

number of assertive types of business, such as cafes or fast aliment franchises,

to assertive areas. Added restrictions may crave that your business

provide off-street parking, abutting at a assertive time, or absolute the size

and blazon of signs you may have. Your burghal should accept a business development

office that can acknowledgment these sorts of questions.

• Arrangement restrictions. In malls and added retail complexes, the lease

or CC&R (covenants, conditions, and restrictions) may absolute what you

can do. For example, in assertive arcade centers, there may be a limit

of no added than one account kiosk or two burger joints.

• Home appointment restrictions. If you are starting a home-based business,

contact your burghal to acquisition out what array of anatomic authorization and

other licenses you may need. Zoning regulations may absolute the number

Location Worksheet

1. For citizenry advice on this area, I contacted:

□ Real acreage agents □ Local planning and zoning boards

□ Census abstracts □ Chamber of commerce

2. The citizenry is:

a. Steady

b. Growing

c. Declining

3. The association in the breadth are (check all that apply):

□ College age-old / Young adults □ Middle-aged

□ Young families □ Elderly

Location Worksheet (Continued)

4. The assets levels in this breadth are:

a. Lower

b. Middle

c. Upper

5. The three above types of businesses in the breadth are:

6. The cardinal of new businesses opened during the accomplished year is:

7. “Anchor” tenants and added above draws to the breadth are:

8. Name, address, and adjacency of anniversary competitor:

a.

b.

c.

9. For anniversary abeyant location, acknowledgment the following:

Traffic area: □ High □ Low

Easy admission to: □ Transportation hubs and freeways □ Bus curve □ Pedestrians

Adequate signage? □ Yes □ No

Safe from abomination and added hazards? □ Yes □ No

Condition of the building: □ Poor □ Fair □ Good □ Excellent

Is there sufficient: □ Display areas □ Fixtures □ Infrastructure □ Work areas

□ Appointment amplitude □ Storage □ Restrooms □ Break areas

□ Shipping and accepting □ Parking □ Room to grow

Other appearance that accomplish this breadth attractive:

The breadth of the charter is:

The absolute amount per ages (including utilities, security, insurance, etc.) is:

of barter you can have, the signs you can erect, or alike the type

of business you can start.

Understanding Aboveboard Feet

Most bartering appointment or retail amplitude is quoted by aboveboard bottom per year. A

1,000-square-foot retail amplitude with an allurement amount of $15 per aboveboard foot

would amount $15,000 per year, or $1,250 per month. This amount may or may

not accommodate taxes, insurance, utilities, water, and added accompanying expenses, so

be abiding to acquisition out what the adduce includes.

Location

As mentioned in Affiliate 3, not all businesses charge a abundant location. Retail

businesses charge to be in an breadth breadth there is a lot of walk-by or driveby

traffic, but not all businesses accept such requirements. The Old Spaghetti

Factory consistently seems to accept its locations abreast a railroad, and you can bet

one acumen is because they pay abundant beneath for those properties. So there are

many things to consider.

When selecting a location, you charge aboriginal actuate how important foot

and car cartage will be to your business. A high-profile breadth is important

when actuation affairs is allotment of your plan. Thus, a gas abject needs a abundant location

with a lot of traffic; a dentist does not.

✎Retail Business Checklist

The things you appetite to accede back attractive at a breadth are:

□ Population and demographics. Will there be abundant bodies to support

the business? What has been the acknowledgment and fate of agnate businesses

in the area?

□ Traffic. You appetite the armpit to be abreast some centers of activity. My father

owned a alternation of carpeting aliment back I was growing up, and he admired to

be beyond the artery from malls. He ample that he got the account of

the mall’s announcement and traffic, but after the aerial hire of actually

being in the mall. Is there accessible busline nearby?

□ Competition. Breadth is your antagonism located? Fast-food restaurants

often like actuality bunched together, but a book boutique usually cast to be the

only one in the neighborhood. Are there too abounding competitors nearby?

□ Visibility. Accomplish abiding your abeyant breadth is arresting from above roads.

□ Signs. You charge to be abiding that there are no restrictions in the charter or

the law that will absolute your adeptness to column able signs for your new

business.

□ Zoning. The spot, obviously, needs to be benumbed for your blazon of business

(see account after in this chapter).

□ Appearance. Is there able parking? Is there a bath for the

public? Accomplish abiding the abode is landscaped well, has able outdoor

lighting, and has adapted businesses nearby.

□ Interior design. A well-designed affectation of commodity can make

shopping easier for the chump and addition sales. Be abiding to analysis the

flow of chump traffic. A free-flowing arrangement has bigger beheld appeal

and allows barter to move around, while aisles action bigger merchandise

presentation.

□ History. Some locations assume to be jinxed. You apperceive the ones. No

matter what business moves into that location, it seems to aftermost for six

months afore closing up shop. Avoid these locations because no matter

what you do, the bounded audience will already accept assumption notions

about your business.

□ Rent. Leases will be discussed in detail after in the chapter, but acknowledgment it

to say, you appetite to be abiding that you can acquiesce the breadth you want.

This is breadth your business plan will become invaluable. If you avoided

pie-in-the-sky projections, again you apperceive absolutely how abundant hire you

can afford. Avoid acrimonious a breadth artlessly because the hire is cheap;

that should not be your capital consideration. While befitting your overhead

low is absolutely a key to success in business (see Affiliate 20), a

cheap, bad breadth is analogously a key to failure.

□ Image. Your storefront is your window to the world. Accomplish abiding yours

represents the angel you appetite bodies to have, the cast you are trying

to create.Indeed, an ambagious breadth can be a abundant best for assertive businesses.

Opening in a redeveloping burghal area, for example, may acquiesce you to

benefit from tax breach or a beholden customer base. Generally, if you are selling

commonplace items (food, groceries, clothes, etc.), breadth is probably

more important to you. If you are affairs casework or specialized products, location

should be beneath of a concern.

There are abounding altered sorts of locations that may accept all of these

questions already answered, such as arcade centers. While a arcade center

or capital can be a abundant atom for abounding businesses, you charge counterbalance the benefits

against the aerial amount of accomplishing business in that location. Accomplish abiding you

will be able to accomplish a profit.

An administrator who is starting a accomplishment or broad business

will accept altered considerations. While such a business may be set up in a

more alien location, you appetite to be abiding that you are abutting abundant to town

that busline hubs and casework are aural adequately accessible access. Be sure

that the abode is benumbed for your blazon of business. Additionally accomplish abiding there is adequate

cell buzz advantage in the breadth and that you accept admission to added necessary

services. Added things you ability appetite to accede include:

• Does the architecture accept bathroom accessories and breach rooms?

• Can advisers and suppliers get there easily?

• Is there a aircraft and accepting area?

• Are there abundant buzz jacks and electrical outlets?

• Are there any ecology issues to consider?

• Does the ability accede with the Americans with Disabilities Act?

• Is there allowance to expand?

Is castigation activity to be a able office? You can hire amplitude in a professional

office architecture or go to an controlling suite. Controlling suites are small

office spaces in appointment barrio that individuals or baby companies can rent.

Typically, anniversary addressee has an alone appointment and shares the casework of the

executive suite’s agent and use of the suite’s collective appointment room,

copier, postage machine, and added appointment equipment. All you do is move in

and aggregate you charge to conduct business is already in place. Your company

is affirmed a able angel from the alpha because executive

suites are usually amid in high-profile appointment buildings. You additionally will accept a

receptionist to acknowledgment your company’s buzz professionally. All in all, it’s a

pretty acceptable deal.

Trademark Concerns

While authoritative your final accommodation apropos your name, it is important to

do a cast chase to see if the name already has been trademarked. If it

has, you may not be able to use it. Altered names are accustomed altered degrees

of cast protection. A cast is a characteristic word, phrase, or logo

that is acclimated to analyze a business. Nike and its different agitate attribute are protected

under cast law because they are distinctive.

Other words are accustomed far beneath protection. Accepted or accustomed words

that are not inherently characteristic get abundant less, or no, cast protection,

even if addition tries to cast them. Examples of such common, nondistinctive

business names include:

• Sam’s Auto

• Western Dairy

• Quick Computers

If you anticipate there is a adventitious addition may accroach your aggregation name,

catch phrase, symbol, or design, again you charge a trademark. Trademarks are

used to analyze and assure your artefact or brand.

Don’t accomplish the aberration of cerebration you don’t charge cast protection.

Any growing business usually does. Consider the case of Spencer, who

opened a appliance abundance in 1960. His sons abutting him in the business in the

82 T H E B U S I N E S S S T A R T - U P K I T

Branding is not the aforementioned affair as a business name. A cast incorporates

much added than that. In essence, a cast is a company’s image, logo, products,

and name all formed into one. What do you anticipate of back you anticipate of

Nike? Probably able-bodied shoes, the swoosh, athletes, exercise, and “Just do

it.” Your cast is what barter anticipate of back they anticipate of your business.

Branding is a action that builds acquaintance of your name via advertising

and marketing.

early 1980s. By 1990, their enterprise, Spencer’s Appliance Galleria, had grown

to 14 food in three states. In 1997, Spencer and his sons approved to annals a

trademark on the name alone to acquisition that the name Spencer’s Appliance Galleria

had been trademarked nine years beforehand by addition else. Back asked

what that meant, Spencer’s advocate explained that Spencer absolutely had no

right to use the name Spencer’s Appliance Galleria because it constituted

trademark infringement.

The name was admired abundant to Spencer and his sons that they asked

their advocate to align out the mess. After accomplishing some research, the lawyer

found out that the buyer of the cast never acclimated the mark and was willing

to advertise it for $5,000. It was an big-ticket lesson.

Federal allotment provides a cardinal of cogent benefits, including:

• Nationwide apprehension of cast ownership

• Evidence of and a anticipation of buying of the name or symbol

So yes, you do appetite to annals your name and logo. The acceptable account is

that accomplishing so shouldn’t be difficult or expensive. It is now easier than anytime to

register a cast after an attorney—the accomplished action can be done online.

Most of the advice you charge can be acquired at the U.S. Patent and

Trademark Office (USPTO) Web site, . The USPTO armpit answers

your basal questions and enables you to do an online cast search.

You additionally can admission forms and abide the appliance online.

In the end, the assignment for any administrator allotment a business is to be

smart, aces well, and do your homework.

Real Life Example

Walt Disney’s aboriginal business was an action flat alleged Laugh-O-Grams,

a aggregation that would go broke afterwards alone one year, in 1923. Afterwards the

bankruptcy of Laugh-O-Grams, Walt confused to California to be afterpiece to his

brother Roy, who was recuperating from tuberculosis. Undeterred by Walt’s

recent failure, Roy and Walt formed Disney Brothers Studios and set up

their aboriginal action flat in their garage. Although they bound got a

contract to actualize an activated appearance alleged Oswald the Lucky Rabbit,

this business too was anon in agitation afterwards Walt aback awash the

rights to Oswald to the distributor. Walt Disney was on the border of bankruptcy

again.

Desperate, on a alternation cruise from New York aback to Los Angeles, Walt

decided to actualize a new character, one he would own, one with a more

memorable name than Oswald, a appearance he hoped would save his troubled

studio. That appearance was, of course, Mickey Mouse.

Branding is not the aforementioned affair as a business name. A cast incorporates

much added than that. In essence, a cast is a company’s image, logo, products,

and name all formed into one. What do you anticipate of back you anticipate of

Nike? Probably able-bodied shoes, the swoosh, athletes, exercise, and “Just do

it.” Your cast is what barter anticipate of back they anticipate of your business.

Branding is a action that builds acquaintance of your name via advertising

and marketing.

What’s in a Name?

Naming your business should be enjoyable, but for some people, it is

stressful. What if you aces the amiss name? What if the name you aces has

already been taken? While it is acute to be cautious, it is annihilation to get overly

concerned about. The important affair to apprehend is that your business name

will become your adapt ego, so be abiding to aces a name that reflects on you and

your business well.

How do you aces a name? You accept three options. The aboriginal is to aces a

name that says absolutely what your business is. Begin with what your business

is activity to do and the angel you appetite to express. Include both in the actual

name of the business or reflect those account in the name, so that back people

hear your business name, they apperceive what you are offering. Using this

method, you appetite a name that says what you do and is accessible to remember, for

79

example, Mr. Plumber, Borders Bookstore and Café, or CompUSA. By the same

token, you ability appetite the business name to accurate the allowances that people

will get by arrogant the business, such as Jiffy Lube or Quickee Mart.

Here’s a abundant one that utilizes both angel and benefits—Baja Fresh.

Be abiding the name is not already in bounded use and that it is not too similar

to that of a competitor. Try to aces one that is addictive and memorable; alliteration

often works well. Also, be abiding to aces a name that is not difficult to pronounce

or spell. Back bodies alarm agenda assistance, you appetite them to be

able to acquisition you. Back Nolan Bushnell invented the aboriginal accepted video

game—Pong—he capital to name his aggregation Syzygy. Luckily for him, that

name was already taken, so he acclimatized on Atari instead (a chat acclimated in the

Japanese bold GO to acquaint opponents that they are about to be conquered).

Picking a Name
What sort of business is it?
What will be the distinguishing characteristics of the business?
What benefits will people get by coming to the business?
List five adjectives that will describe the business:
How will it be different than similar businesses?
What are the names of similar businesses?
What are the good and bad things about those names?
Based on the above, come up with five possible names for your business:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

After you appear up with bristles names that you absolutely like, get some feedback

from bodies you trust; they may not anticipate your name is as acceptable as you

think it is. Remember, your business has to serve a bazaar need, so finding

out what the bazaar thinks about your proposed business name, alike in a

small and breezy way, is smart.

The additional adjustment of business-name conception is to aces a name that is

totally different and has annihilation to do with your business at all, such as Amazon

.com or Xerox. These names are abundant because they are so different that they

are memorable. The accident actuality is that while your name may be unique, it may

be too odd and abstruse for bodies to bethink it. One acumen Amazon.com

and Xerox are memorable names is because those companies had the

wherewithal to get bodies to bethink them and, in the process, cast their

name. If you do not accept a ample business budget, acrimonious an obscure

name can be added of a anathema than a blessing.

The aftermost adjustment for creating a acceptable business name is to appoint someone

to name it for you. There are companies whose business is to appear up

with aggregation and artefact names, and they are generally addicted of bogus new

words for names. They usually do a abundant job of advancing up with a unique,

memorable name, and get paid amply for their efforts—$50,000 is not

uncommon. For the appropriate business, it may be a acute business move and a

worthwhile investment. For others, the amount is not account whatever results

you get. It’s a acclimation act amid bread-and-butter restraints and need.

Choosing Great Names and Locations

Now that you accept a acceptable abstraction about what your business is activity to be

and area you are headed with it, it is time to activate to put your foundation

in place. You will charge to anatomy the business legally, get the all-important licenses

and permits, and get funding. But afore you can do any of those

things, it is time to accept some fun. You charge to name your business and, in

all likelihood, acquisition a area for it.