The lease
How Do I Negotiate & Understand My Lease?
Leases are scary. They force you to make a commitment to pay fees over the lifetime of the lease. Getting out of a lease is almost impossible.
What are some of the things you should always look for in a lease?
Just because rent is $10 per square foot, don't forget to ask what the NNNs. Also don't forget to find out what the taxes are per month. Does the rent or NNNs include the utilities? What about trash removal? Who is paying for that? Can you nail down the taxes to be the same amount year over year?
There are so many hidden agendas in a lease, so buyer beware. You might be giving them your entire annual salary, especially if you're in food service.
Leases Negotiated:
- Lerner Enterprises
- Centennial Properties
- Forest City Management
- Brookfield Management
- Westfield
- Taubman
Learn More
Landlords can suck the life out of you and your business. They can become a full-time job.
Non-disclosure
Someone wants to partner with me. How can I protect my business?
Do you want to know the serious business owners from the snake oil salesmen/women? Give them a non-disclosure agreement. Nothing ends a bad deal or exposes truth faster than a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).
If you have a successful business or idea, there is a likelihood that others want a piece of it, and some will even try to take it from you, by stealing your ideas.
Even if you are asked to give "high level information, not the details" tell them not until there is an agreement or a signed NDA.
All information is high level information because it took time, energy and money to budget, negotiate, plan, spend, hope, and sweat to get to that number. All information is high-level.
Never assume that sharing business information is anything but free. It cost you a lot of money, so they will have to pay for it.
Make sure your NDA is rock solid enough to make potential business partners take their partnership to you seriously.
*I'm not an attorney. We will use my rock solid NDA template, then have your attorney to review it, saving money along the way.
