WFH – the new normal?
It hasn’t been great for everyone. Many office-based employees have had plenty of practice at WFH over the last couple of years. Some have loved it others not so much. Some have perhaps been treading water waiting to get back to normal only to find that the management has other plans. The office is closing […]
Top tips to survive a recession (from a small business owner who has survived two!)
As we face (yet another) period of economic uncertainty, many business owners I speak to are asking what they need to do to weather the storm. As a business owners who has been through two big recessions and lived to tell the story, I wrote this blog to share my experiences and some top tips […]
Six top tips to get the best outcome from any business negotiation
On the face of it, I support business owners to understand, find and negotiate the right commercial premises for their business, on the right terms. Of course, as with any B2B offering, I do much more than that. One of the most challenging, and often emotional, areas I support business owners with is negotiation. While […]
Which is best: face to face or online meetings?
Where would we be without the ability to work remotely? Those of you who know me well, know I have taken full advantage of online networking and have done a significant amount of my professional work remotely, using Teams and Zoom, to my clients’ complete satisfaction. I’m a big fan! Going forward, I do hope […]
Major changes to the planning system you should know about
The government has produced some dramatic changes to the planning system which may affect you or one of your contacts. The changes are intended to ease the blockage caused by the need for a change of use and to help the economy. This may have unforeseen consequences – we shall have to wait and see. […]
Navigating the minefield that is commercial property
The client is NewVoiceMedia, a specialist cloud-telecoms software developers. I helped them move from a small farm building to an office in Basingstoke where over ten years, the company grew from 30 people occupying one area of 3,330 Sq. Ft to 275 people in eight areas totalling 27,000 Sq. Ft. As they grew, the shortcomings […]
Your rent deposit – how much? How long? Who gets the interest? Upsides? Downsides?
A rent deposit is an amount of money paid by a tenant to act as security in case they (the tenant) don’t meet their obligations under a lease. A deposit is a kind of insurance policy for the landlord against the tenant’s defaulting, and is usually required when the financial standing of the tenant is […]
How to negotiate effectively with a landlord in the best interests of your business
“I know the Landlord, he’s incredibly nice. We get on so well. The agent is really helpful too.” How many times do I hear that? My response to that is: I don’t doubt it. I know lots of very nice landlords too, not to mention their equally helpful agents but is that a reason to […]
Commercial property advice will significantly improve outcomes and make your solicitor happy!
It’s uncanny. “If only our tenant clients would hire someone like you! It would be so much quicker and easier for us – and cheaper for the client. Not only that, the client would get a better deal!” It happened again the other evening, in Winchester. There I was chatting away in a group […]
How hiring a commercial property expert can save you many times more than they cost
I noticed this old story circulating again, recently. It’s such a great illustration of what it is to be an expert and how others, who may be expert in their own field, can miss and potentially undervalue expertise in others. You know the one – it’s about the expert engineer called in to fix the […]
You can’t trust advice from a bloke at the pub…
One of my posts with this opening comment attracted more than average attention, perhaps because it rings true with many. It was prompted by the following ironic scenario. I was referred to talk to a couple of entrepreneurial young guys, eager to start a business together. They were full of enthusiasm, which is always great […]
Experts don’t just meet their clients’ commercial property needs, they add value
Imagine you and I are walking through the centre of Portsmouth. Someone calls out from a car, “I need to get the Isle of Wight Ferry! I am in a hurry!” If someone called through their car window asking for directions, we may just simply tell them how to get to the ferry and that’s […]
Premises – asset or liability?
There are so many factors to consider in relation to the space a business occupies. People tend to look at it only from their own perspective. What it really comes down to is whether you, as a business owner/operator, view your premises as an asset or as a cost. If you look at your premises […]
Don’t have premises unless you absolutely need them
Don’t have business premises unless you absolutely need them. That is one of my mantras. I recently had my windscreen replaced. The process was interesting but the really interesting thing was to hear from the guy on the tools, how the screen replacement company has changed working practices and so reduced its property overhead quite […]
It is not all about the rent
If we only agree the length of the lease and the amount of rent, we have left perhaps a dozen other terms and conditions which will not be tailored to the needs of the business. Does that matter? In a typical commercial lease of about 40 pages, you can expect about 1½ pages to be […]