Location Help?

[weezon]

Option 1:

It's a 500 sqft office suite on a six lane busy road in an one story building with a dentist, insurance agent, appraiser, and a psychologist. The only visual presence is a non lighted sign out front. The suite is the first one near the entrance in the rear. Bathrooms are in the hall. There's two offices. One will be mine, the other the shop, and the small receptionist area will be a sitting area as best I can figure. The plan is to do 50% residential and 50% small business. When it's slow I will sneak out to the near by office buildings an scout small business owner. $625 monthly gross, Lights, Heat / AC, Internet included.

Option 2:

Is a retail location, 760 sqft on a 4 lane busy street 20 minutes from home. The Nail Salon in the picture is the spot and parking is on the side at the other end. It's shared with a Indian Grocery, a new Pet Grooming shop (#53), Hair Salon, and some ones opening a new shop at the other end. They are all the same size shops. This is a better income area than the office. I can park my truck in the lot and everybody will see my sign on it too. $760 a month, nothing included. Will need a sign and maybe build a counter and a wall to separate the space from the shop. Market: 80% Residential / 20% Small business. It will be hard to leave the shop.

I'm leaning towards the office because I'm cheap and scared of the cost of the shop. I have the money to pay for a year in both and stay above water until things pay for themselves. I value your opinion so give me the good and bad and don't hold back.

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Retail Owners, will the added cost of the retail space be worth the extra cost?

Office users, how do you get enough traffic without a visual presence?

With marketing cost these may just be the same price monthly. What would you do?

 

[ComputerClinic]

Well, I work from home so my opinion doesn't hold much weight. But I would go with the retail store. It might cost more but if you get more business from the visibility it would pay for itself IMO. Plus I think it looks more professional than an office.

I don't really have much to back my opinion with. I'm just envious and that storefront is exactly what I want.

 

[Joines]

I can tell you that working from an office building we get zero "walk-ins"

In my personal opinion, its more likely that someone is going to see your shop and write down your number/website (I do this just to see the other computer repair places around me). Rather than someone searching for a business on google or in a newspaper. Although that also depends on the client base. I personally have never picked up a newspaper to read in my life, but I was born past that era.

The way I see it:

Office Building Pro's: Cheaper, Come's with Internet (although this could be a con depending on how its setup, do other businesses share it?)
Office Building Con's: No Sign, No real "walk-in" potential on a 6-lane road, Office buildings can be confusing for clients (who may be carrying a 30lb computer)

Retail Store Pro's: Big (lit up) sign, highly visible, not as busy street, Can see customers approaching (to help, or carry stuff to their car)
Retail Store Con's: Price is obviously higher and comes with less it seems, you may smell nail polish 24/7

We seem to attract more small business owners coming from an office building environment, though we much rather have residential. Most of our clients come from referrals. That retail location looks nice too, shame it doesn't have a popular shop though, like a CVS or something that always has a constant flow of business.

 

[weezon]

We seem to attract more small business owners coming from an office building environment, though we much rather have residential.

Thanks a bunch. Never heard someone say they would rather have residential. Everyone says small businesses are the future. Can you explain why?

 

[weezon]

Come on guys and girls tell me what you think.

 

[bagellad]

Couple questions..

How close are they to competitors?

How long as the leases?

How much capital do you have?

How much do you make a month right now?

Are you expecting your shop to bring in new customers? Or do you have other advertising for that?

Is anything negotiable with the land lords?

 

[weezon]

How close are they to competitors?

Best Buy is 3 miles away from the store front. There's a indy store front 1 mile away from the office.

How long as the leases?

Both are 1 year.

How much capital do you have?

Let's just say rent for a year is 25 - 30% of my capital.

How much do you make a month right now?

Why do you ask? How much do you make?

Are you expecting your shop to bring in new customers? Or do you have other advertising for that?

Both. I expect more customers in both the office and shop. I plan to increase advertising for both. The office of course will need more advertising but its cheaper.

Is anything negotiable with the land lords?

everythings negotiable.

I like your site. Not bad for Joomla. I like the pay pal option too. I didn't see where you had a office or storefront. Are you debating it. Can you explain how your drop off location is working for you?

 

[Joines]

Thanks a bunch. Never heard someone say they would rather have residential. Everyone says small businesses are the future. Can you explain why?

Well I guess I can't say everyone at this company would rather have residential. In my experience with small businesses though, you never are coming to fix "A and B". A and B turns into A through Z. And because of this, our company often sends 1 person out to do these "A and B" jobs, and this such person (myself a few times now) ends up staying 4+ hours doing something that could take 1 hour with 2 people. Then of course, the company is angry its getting billed for 4 hours, and then the bill usually gets cut in half since they complain. Maybe I'm just bitter.

Also, I enjoy working with people who I can communicate with easier. Some businesses just want you to come in and do the work without giving you any background knowledge of their setup/situation. I don't know if its just me either, but it seems that small business employee's that work on computers daily seem to think they know more than I do about computers. Which is fine, if you know more than me great, just don't call me out to fix your problems...

 

[weezon]

I can totally relate to that but I bill what I work. I would never cut rates when the time has been documented.

 

[Redtech1]

both locations have their pro's and cons as discussed already.

It depends on what you want to do as well. I am looking at each from an advertising perspective.

With both you can offer something like "Teeth cleaned.What about your computer you use it everyday too?" OR with the retail " Don't just take care of yourself, take care of your computer too".

I personally like the calm of an office (if you want to do more field work then go office). The retail location offers ALOT of visability and growth potential. I would almost say go retail and keep the office space in mind for when you grow large enough, leave the retail for your walkin/shop work and set the office up as your field tech office/storage and accounting/management area.

 

[NYJimbo]

That first place looks like a bank or a small church. Nothing about the store grabs my eye. If I was driving by I would see the State Farm sign and figure it was all office related crap and keep going. You would need to have other advertisements to attract customers and many people would feel weird bringing a computer to a place like that.

Figure out the cost difference between that "bank" and the store. Make sure you account for everything.

We have had threads on this before so I am not going to type all that stuff over again, but the store is the way to go.

Big window space and a sign above is great advertising and makes you look more pro. You can even work on getting "craigslist" techs to drop off work they dont want to do, like I do and make more money that way.

 

[weezon]

both locations have their pro's and cons as discussed already.

It depends on what you want to do as well. I am looking at each from an advertising perspective.

With both you can offer something like "Teeth cleaned.What about your computer you use it everyday too?" OR with the retail " Don't just take care of yourself, take care of your computer too".

I personally like the calm of an office (if you want to do more field work then go office). The retail location offers ALOT of visability and growth potential. I would almost say go retail and keep the office space in mind for when you grow large enough, leave the retail for your walkin/shop work and set the office up as your field tech office/storage and accounting/management area.

Thanks a bunch. Good ideas too.

 

[weezon]

That first place looks like a bank or a small church. Nothing about the store grabs my eye. If I was driving by I would see the State Farm sign and figure it was all office related crap and keep going. You would need to have other advertisements to attract customers and many people would feel weird bringing a computer to a place like that.

Figure out the cost difference between that "bank" and the store. Make sure you account for everything.

We have had threads on this before so I am not going to type all that stuff over again, but the store is the way to go.

Big window space and a sign above is great advertising and makes you look more pro. You can even work on getting "craigslist" techs to drop off work they dont want to do, like I do and make more money that way.

Utilities and the differences in rent are the only differences. They are both Gross leases.

 

[weezon]

out of the two i would say the retail front. keep minimal inventory a good work area for repairs, a good place to secure notebooks, software high value items. Stock lots of cables, and a select brand of each pc component hard drives, motherboard, video cards try not to compete directly with the other Mom & Pop type shops. Best buy being three miles away will mostlikely be a boast to your business if anything.

The first year is the hardest to survive many shops fail because they try to expand to fast to soon. you dont say what state your in but if its california do the office space and keep it small, serious california hates businesses.

good luck

That's for the feedback. I'm in Michigan.

 

[Codemonkey]

If you have a sizable retail inventory then I would be inclined to go with the retail space. If you're alone and locking up to run service calls throughout the day I would go with the office.

 

[callthatgirl]

Hi Weezon! Here are my thoughts and I am going through the same issue right now...storefront or business office.

I would say for you, you have the busy road in front of your retail option, I would ask if you could put out a sandwich board/sign.

Grand opening! 25% off!
Computer cleanings $50!
Virus repair $129!

If your landlord allows the signs out front on the busy road, that is your money maker. Make a good sign that you can rotate out specials. It will pay for itself I'm quite sure.

My option right now is a big retail space, they want me in for $500 includes everything for now, but that will go up as I grow. They know I am new to this town with no clients. I can put out the sandwich board too, that is my big draw. The sandwich board will be on a very busy road, tons of cars going by, I know the board itself will be huge for my "grand opening" etc.

So I say go retail, you will get more residentials with that area.

My first office I had 2 years ago...was done on a whim. I paid $650 a month for a tiny crap hole in downtown Minneapolis! Now I pay $400 for a business park office and I get no drop ins period. All my business is done via referrals/marketing.

Pay the extra! I am jealous! (well, not too jealous, but enough!)

 

[weezon]

Thanks callthatgirl and codemonkey your opinions mean a lot. I'm sure I can put out a sandwich board. The landlord is really easy to deal with. Thanks again.

 

[bagellad]

How close are they to competitors?

Best Buy is 3 miles away from the store front. There's a indy store front 1 mile away from the office.

How long as the leases?

Both are 1 year.

How much capital do you have?

Let's just say rent for a year is 25 - 30% of my capital.

How much do you make a month right now?

Why do you ask? How much do you make?

Are you expecting your shop to bring in new customers? Or do you have other advertising for that?

Both. I expect more customers in both the office and shop. I plan to increase advertising for both. The office of course will need more advertising but its cheaper.

Is anything negotiable with the land lords?

everythings negotiable.

I like your site. Not bad for Joomla. I like the pay pal option too. I didn't see where you had a office or storefront. Are you debating it. Can you explain how your drop off location is working for you?

I have a couple local businesses that agreed to allow my customers to drop off the computers there, their employees have been a bit annoying about it, "i dont work for your company etc." but they will get fired eventually anyway i am sure. For the most part it has been pretty good and made my life a lot easier.

I just wanted to make sure you had enough money to survive owning a location. We get a lot of day dreaming guys who don't have a client list to speak of and are leasing a store expecting people to just show up. Personally I would like an office someday although I don't really need it at the moment. But I wouldn't get it until I had enough clients to support it.

don't forget to see if the landlord makes you guys pay for your own parking lot plowing Etc.

 

[weezon]

I have a couple local businesses that agreed to allow my customers to drop off the computers there, their employees have been a bit annoying about it, "i dont work for your company etc." but they will get fired eventually anyway i am sure. For the most part it has been pretty good and made my life a lot easier.

I just wanted to make sure you had enough money to survive owning a location. We get a lot of day dreaming guys who don't have a client list to speak of and are leasing a store expecting people to just show up. Personally I would like an office someday although I don't really need it at the moment. But I wouldn't get it until I had enough clients to support it.

don't forget to see if the landlord makes you guys pay for your own parking lot plowing Etc.

Thanks again. You'll get that office soon enough.

 

[Alan22]

The landlord is really easy to deal with.

You're not locked into a lease yet