Launching your own business on 57th street isn’t an easy feat. The main question, as anyone knows, is location. Requirements we had for laser hair removal business’ location were simple – lots of commercial buildings around, diverse population, close proximity to subway station with multiple routes. For Manhattan this part was easy. The owner of the business spent quite a few years working (as employee) in various locations – midtown, SoHo, Chelsea, so she knew where to start looking. It only took us two weeks roaming around these areas of Manhattan searching for a suitable place to start coming up with reasonable possibilities. We had found a few spots with almost same rent in Chelsea and Downtown. However, almost at the last moment, a new possibility presented itself.
The last place she was working at was in a building on 57th street, right across from Carnegie Hall. That business was closed by the owner, so the office was available. Sort of. The landlord who managed that space was notorious for creating problems for tenants so there was little desire to rent something from that person. Few months later it became known around the building that she managed to collect the rent for a few months without making her own payments up the chain and one day just dashed out.
Rumor had it other spaces were available around in the same building as other tenants of that landlord were looking to move within the building. Turned out the space was available on a different floor in the same building, although the rent was 30% higher. Time for decision – should she rent in a familiar place, but at higher price or new place at a lower price.
Arguments for lower rent spots were pretty obvious – since we were starting a brand new business it didn’t really matter much which place to open at, but a higher expense every month was an issue for a new business. The more expensive location had the benefits of familiarity and there was always a possibility of seeing some familiar client faces should they decide to return. Besides, the previous business owner sort of just got up and left one day, so there was a number of clients in the middle of their treatments left unfinished. There was always a possibility to migrate them to new business even at a discount. A huge argument against the old spot was that there was a huge skin care spa on the same floor. Occupying half the floor with beautiful reception desk and cute girls working there.
After three days of deliberation we decided on the old place. Despite the higher rent, despite the huge skin care spa across the hall – pretty much despite the reason and common sense. We just decided that with so much competition in midtown Manhattan running away from expensive spa on the same floor didn’t make any sense. We’d rather stick it into their faces that we were going to be there and we will have our piece of the pie. So we settled there, paid our deposit and filed our insurance for that address.
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Hello there again. After year and a half hiatus I am trying to resurrect the blog and continue (although in a new form) to write about technology and small business. The break was due to the fact I worked for an e-commerce startup which required pretty much 24×7 commitment. The startup was closed exactly one year ago, which wasn’t much fun. Then I picked a short consulting assignment with one of the largest payment processing shops. Now working as a systems analyst, doing more thinking than coding which makes my fingers a bit restless. Hence the blogging again.