There is a very basic event in the life of your business that can make a tremendous impact to your cash flow and business structure and even seemingly unrelated abilities such as establishing branding by location. This is the signing of your studio lease. This is a significant milestone – unless you’re lucky enough to own your own building.
Negotiating your lease isn’t a one-time event either. It is something that you will have to negotiate every time your renewal comes around.
Dance Teacher Magazine featured an article this past December entitled “Getting a New Lease on (Studio) Life”. In the article, Rachel Rizzuto reveals 10 tips for helping you through commercial lease negotiation.
If you’ve been through this before, you’ll remember that a standard offer to lease must include 25 critical points. But realizing that these points are only the basics can help you to get the best deal. It’s difficult because there is jargon, there are buzzwords and real estate tenant incentives that you’re not likely to be familiar with so this list of tips is a good tool to use to get your brain around the basics of what negotiating a commercial lease is all about.
The ten tips range from common sense suggestions to very specific directives. Realize that the more informed and even savvy you are in discussing your lease and options, the more your landlord will respect you and work with you in getting the terms you want and need in your deal.
As the article notes in one of the tips, working with a real estate broker is critical. There is no way that you could know everything that you need to watch out for and ask for – and a real estate broker does. They are as good at their jobs as you are at teaching your dancers! So leverage their expertise and be much more comfortable going through the lease negotiation process and get better results that put you in the best possible financial and operational situation.
