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1996-11-06
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@064 CHAP 1
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ CHECKLIST FOR SIGNING A BUSINESS LEASE │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
If you will need to lease space to operate your business
in, have you located a suitable place that is available to
you? If so, here are a number of critical points you need
to consider before you sign a lease with the landlord:
. The term of the lease. Many small businesses tend to
start off by either growing rapidly or quickly folding.
Thus, except in a retail or service business, you
will probably be better off leasing initially on a
month-to-month basis or for as short a lease term
as you can get, such as three or six months, even if
the monthly rent is higher than for a longer lease.
You will have enough financial problems already if
your business fails, without being saddled with a
long-term lease obligation. If all goes well, and
you need to expand into a larger facility, you won't
be constrained by a long-term lease on a place you
have outgrown.
. Whether you can put up the kind of sign you must
have, as large as you need, on the building. A
business like a restaurant can be devastated if the
landlord doesn't permit a sign that is sufficiently
visible to passersby.
. Whether the landlord will permit you to make necessary
improvements and alterations to the leased premises.
. Whether the local health department, fire and police
departments, air pollution control authorities and
zoning rules will permit operation of your particular
type of business at the location you have chosen. If
not, it is better to find out BEFORE you have signed
the lease.
. Whether your location is in a high crime area that
will require expensive burglary insurance and security
precautions.
. Whether there is enough parking nearby or good public
transit access for customers.
. Whether the location is appropriate to the kind
of business you will conduct. There is usually no
need to locate a manufacturing operation in a busy,
high-traffic area. On the other hand, retail
businesses are usually heavily dependent on the
number of people passing nearby on foot or by car.
For example, the owners of the Burger King chain
reportedly select sites for their fast food restaurants
by looking for locations that have at least 16,000
cars passing by each day at an average speed of about
30 miles per hour.
. Whether the lease provides you an option to renew
(and at what rental?) after the initial term expires.
. Whether, if the lease is for more than just a few
months, you have the right to sublease or assign the
lease. If so, under what conditions or restrictions?
Are the restrictions reasonable ones that you can
live with? (Remember that a lease is a binding legal
contract, and that if you agree to pay rent of $1,000
a month for two years, you are on the hook for
$24,000 unless you can sublease or assign the lease
to someone else--which the lease, or the landlord,
may make difficult or impossible to do.)