Real Estate Advice for First Time and Veteran Gym Owners
As a fitness professional looking to open their own fitness facility, it’s critical to know what to ask, what to look for, and who to talk to when getting ready to sign your commercial gym lease. Kristen Gallogly, Senior Advisor at Hello Office, specializes in Tenant Representation in San Francisco, working with entrepreneurs, startups and venture capital firms. She is recognized for executing strategies quickly and efficiently, while prioritizing her clients’ needs and experience. Check out her pieces of advice for entrepreneurs as they launch their fitness facility.
1. Lead Time
Entrepreneurs almost always underestimate the timeline for identifying, negotiating a lease, building out and moving. By having the conversation early and often, you maximize your option pool and can save your company substantial time and money.
2. Flexibility
When launching your first venture that involves real estate, it’s important to focus on identifying opportunities with shorter lease terms, renewal options and expansion options. Think through all possible scenarios good/bad and lean on your broker to negotiate these terms in your lease.
3. Construction
Over-communicate and clearly define scope of work and the parties responsible. Disputes often arise when details are not agreed to early on.
4. Partner
Ensure you have an advocate you can trust that approaches real estate advisory through the lens of your business. Be wary of brokers that misdirect you to deals that don’t make sense or pressure you to make decisions under fear. They should be presenting all options, preparing detailed financial analysis, providing clear timelines and vendor recommendations for you to transact successfully. I can’t stress enough the importance of performing upfront due diligence and exhausting all creative options before making a commitment.
5. Preparation
Landlords will want to understand your business, revenue model, funding/investors, projections, burn, etc. in order to move forward as well as to define a security deposit. Many companies do not prepare this information upfront. Therefore, you can differentiate yourself as a prepared tenant by having this information compiled in a deck or folder, accompanied by the company’s Balance Sheet, recent bank statements and Profit & Loss. The more information and the better the financial story you can communicate, the stronger your chances to win the space over competing interest, as well as drive the security deposit down.
More tips on making your passion become a profitable venture?
Here are Billy’s top four pieces of financial advice to help with guaranteeing that your passion becomes a profitable venture which supports you and your best life from this day forward.
Guest Contributor:
Kristen Gallogly | Senior Advisor at Hello Office
