You may be surprised to see the landlords are ready to drop the rental price 50% or even more. Just ask for it. Location is not everything but quite important. Get a good carpenter and build tables and shelfs from solid wood which you can use for many years and makes your space cool.
On May 9, 2017 00:02, "Kevin Haggerty" <kevinrhagge...@gmail.com> wrote: > I just wanted to write an update for those of you who have been following > along with our progress in Gloucester, VA -- in particular to those of you > who have helped and given valuable input along the way. > > If you recall, the situation has been fairly unique, in that the landlords > (husband & wife) of the building we were looking to use were approaching > things from a benevolent approach/perspective, and had chosen to focus on > their desire to support the business and less about the agreement and our > roles. Several of you (rightly) had apprehension over that, and in response > to your advice of the advice of other mentors, I have been making firm > efforts to nail them down on some kind of agreement over the past two > weeks. (It hasn't been easy.) > > Long story as short as I can make it - the results have been > disappointing. When I finally got them to give me some hard numbers, their > proposal was $17.40/sq ft for the lease. To give frame of reference, > commercial real estate in the area typically leases for anywhere from $6/sq > ft up to $16/sq ft on the high end. So, we suddenly went from them being > invested in the vision and wanting to help foster that to it being very cut > and dry and them essentially making me a business offer that I'd have to be > foolish to accept. > > The good news is that we got this out on the table now versus later. > > I did not respond to their offer right away (it was made during a meeting > last Tuesday), as I wanted to have time to process and do research. I'm > scheduled to meet with them this evening, where I will tell them I cannot > accept their terms and see where the conversation goes. It's likely I'll > need to walk away, which is totally ok, because I know it isn't about a > building. :) > > Additionally, I've recently taken on a partner. She is a young lady who > was looking to start a local small business incubator, and we both felt our > similar interests and what we bring to the table would complement the other > well. So, the focus has shifted a little, and the plan is now to create a > coworking space that would also have a small business incubator built in, > including an advisory board of mentors who are local business owners and > entrepreneurs who have expertise and experience to share. > > Our group of interested coworkers continues to grow, and we're now up to > about 20 people who have said they want in when the doors open. > > I also got an email from the local newspaper this morning, and they're > looking to do an article on what we're trying to do. > > This afternoon, my partner and I are going to look at the upstairs of a > local building as a possible alternative location. It's old and needs a lot > of TLC, but the rent/lease is about 25% of what the other landlords were > asking. The thought is that we could get our feet wet there and learn about > running the space, and we could even just go cheap on the furniture by > getting thrift store stuff, building certain aspects (floating wall desks), > and just trying to operate n a shoestring budget until things take off. > > We've also found a local accountant who is going to help us make sure > we're doing things by the book in that regard, and she will be on retainer > for $150/month (which we think is pretty cheap). > > We're thinking about just going ahead and launching presales and doing > some crowdfunding to help with upfront costs, but our fear is that people > won't buy into that without a building/location. I'd love to hear from any > of you who have been successful in similar circumstances. > > As always, I appreciate all feedback and support. > > More to come. > > ~Kevin > > -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
