00:00 Speaker A
So Ryan, for our small business owners who are deciding whether to buy their space on Main Street or continue to rent. What is your advice?
00:06 Ryan
My first piece of advice is to make sure you squeeze every last drop of lemon out of your digital showcase first.
00:15 Ryan
Really important. You don’t do them at the same time, do you? You have a digital storefront first and foremost because you can reach more customers even on the high street
00:23 Ryan
in their hands before you will reach them before they pass.
00:26 Ryan
Is it okay? Then you need to think about marketing knowledge, because if you want a storefront to keep inventory, you don’t need to do it at retail price. If you want a shop to meet customers, you also don’t need to do it at retail price.
00:36 Ryan
Um, if you want a storefront for branding and advertising, right, you might want to do it at the retail level. Um but then you’re also looking at your costs in terms of not just like, you know, volumetric square footage in terms of how much room do I need or in a building, multi-level or ground floor or second floor retail, you’re also looking at it as advertising costs and how much money you’re actually going to save because you have banner space.
00:56 Ryan
Right? With that. Um and then it’s a math conversation. What is your payback period on the space? What is your what is your path to profit on this space and be sure, especially if this is the first time you do it. Um, and I’ve been there before.
01:09 Ryan
You don’t agree to anything in the long run
01:12 Ryan
um, uh, in a way that completely destroys your life.
01:17 Ryan
Right? So like, you know, the first building I ever took, you know, where I had it, Um I accepted the option for 10 years because if everything works out, I don’t want to get fired.
01:24 Speaker A
Right
01:25 Ryan
But it was three years where I paid a little more for those three. So my escalations were big in the first three years. But they amortized more than seven,
01:35 Ryan
okay? For the landlord to get what he needed and they felt good because they thought they were taking advantage of me for the first three, but really I was taking advantage of them for the next seven.
01:41 Ryan
And most landlords want to be able to cover their bills in the beginning and be able to say they had a net rent like high, right? So they can come out like that. Um with no personal guarantees usually and the ability to sublet if the dirt hits the fan and you want to get someone to share the space, share the space, use the space, you know, any way you can live.
01:58 Ryan
And if you do all that and all those boxes are completely checked and you still want to do it, then go for it. Life is short, an asteroid could hit tomorrow and all the dinosaurs will die and us. So like what are we talking about?