The next shoe to fall...

The next shoe to fall , of particular concern to small business owners and franchise operators will be the impending commercial Real Estate market correction. Considerations may entail acquiring property for purchase and lease negotiation power. You also need to think carefully about the potential effect of the unwinding of any synergistic shopping effects associated with strip developments and in particular malls. I.E. if your concept strongly benefits from an anchor to drive your customer base, that could be in danger. You should activate your city council network and find out about tax revenues and consider your proposals. Often the city council can motivate a potential landlord to make the concessions you desire. For instance most cities derive more income from a restaurant than an auto service. You can get the proposal moving forward and get a property tax concession for the landlord in exchange for the potential of higher sales tax to the city, while negotiating a more desirable contract for yourself. This is a very good way to move in on more desirable locations at a nominal cost. One of my clients got the city to finance the impact fees on a conversion of an auto shop to a restaurant this way. In this case the city also helped pick up the cost of utility conversion and financed the HVAC improvements for the landlord with an energy improvement credits. My point in all of this is, you can be very creative. And soon the time to strike will be at hand. Expect significant downturns in the commercial real Estate market. Pre identify your properties, invest in your core team and figure out how you are going to move your multiple agenda items across the goal line. I remain, FuwaFuwaUsagi