Did you know you have some shop for lease options as a small business owner? Would you be interested in a few of those options, followed by our recommendation as the best option of them all?
Read on if you are a small business owner who works from home or who has outgrown your current shop.
The first option you are probably very familiar with: work from home and continue cluttering up your living space with business materials, office supplies, and machinery. True, this is the least-expensive of all the options we are about to list but seriously, how much longer can you function from home and remain sane? And what does it say to your customers if your home is your office? Does it say “small-time,” and is that the business message you want to convey?
The next shop for lease option is a small office in a strip mall or small business park. Depending on location, this can cost you anywhere from ten to twenty-five dollars-per-square-foot, conservatively speaking. Possibly more…possibly much more…and what you will get is a standard, traditional shop, perhaps smaller than you really need, perhaps larger than you really need, and perhaps in the area you had hoped for. You will get a functional workspace with all the character and personality of a wet rag, and if you think that’s an exaggeration, go out and look for yourself. Go ahead, we’ll wait while you prove us correct on this point.
Discouraging, isn’t it? We know of one friend, in Los Angeles, who hoped to lease a shop in the revitalized downtown area of Los Angeles. His best option . . . his BEST OPTION . . . was 400 square feet for $2,000 per month. Are you looking for a cheap warehouse? This is not the option you want.
Best option?
Now that you are appropriately discouraged . . . now that you are on the brink of professional suicide . . . allow us to give you one more option: the shipping container revolution!
All around the world, smart commercial real estate companies and construction companies are seeing the logic and beauty in retrofitting used shipping containers and making them shops, warehouses, offices, and business suites. Is a cheap office for you? Containers offer the best value for your buck because much of the construction is already done. In other words, leasing costs are lower. Shipping containers offer the most flexibility for a small business owner. They can literally be anything you want them to be, and if you need more space you simply add on another shipping container. Your business space can grow by 320 square foot increments, meaning you’ll always have enough space and never have too much wasted space. Shipping containers are radical and practical, truly designed and meant for the dreamers of the business world, the entrepreneurs who are not confined by the norm.
So, are you looking for a shop for lease? If so, feel free to go out and do the traditional search, but once you come to your senses, go take a look at some shipping container construction. We are pretty sure you’ll see the wisdom in doing so.
In the Fort Worth area, the name to remember for container shops is Box Office Warehouse Suites, Alliance commercial real estate at its best.
