This is going to be a series of articles covering some of my experiences and techniques I have used to successfully negotiate Lease Terms. This article is simply an introduction to negotiating a lease and will serve as an outline to the articles to come.

These articles are not going to cater to those of you who own businesses working from home. However, I believe that the tips shared here could be valuable for you in other aspects of your life that concern negotiations. So, you might want to check it out anyway. For those of you who already lease commercial property or are thinking about leasing commercial property I hope these tips help.

This is one area that I did not do a very good job at when I started my first brick and mortar retail store. I really didn’t know how much I could negotiate and I was not very patient during the process. I was amped up to start my business and wanted to get started as soon as possible so I failed to negotiate my terms very well. However, because of that experience I have since learned to better negotiate lease terms upon obtaining a new lease and when renewing my lease.

Now, keep in mind as you are reading this article that a lot of your negotiating power depends on how hot the rental market is or how high the demand is for a particular location. The more demand for a location the less negotiating power you are going to have.

Location

First, I want to talk about the location of your business. The location of your business is definitely crucial to how successful you can be (Location will be discussed in another article in detail). However, you do not want to lease an amazing location that you are not going to be able to afford. It’s not a good idea to think that just because you are in an amazing location that you will be able to afford that huge $10,000 or whatever a month lease payment. Even if you are in a great location it still takes time to build up your customer base and generate any substantial cash flow.

So, as a starting point for negotiating a lease I suggest, especially if this is your only store to open and you are just getting started, to find a location with the following criteria

• A lease payment that you think you will be able to afford per month based on your projected sales even before negotiations begin.
• A location that is visible and easily accessible
• A location that has an “anchor” store nearby and plenty of complementary businesses

Those are just a few criteria to get you started. As mentioned before location will be discussed in depth in another article. Now, let’s get to actually negotiating your lease.

You can negotiate just about any area of your lease but from my experience I have been most successful and I think most beneficial from negotiating the following areas:

• Length of the Lease
• Rent and Rent Increases
• Common Area Maintenance Fees or CAMS
• Tenant Improvements