Congratulations! You are finally ready to open your first café, shop or event venue. You find a location and negotiate the lease. You are talking to contractors about the costs of remodeling the space. They tell you that you need to show them the plans for pricing. So you start looking for an architect or a drafter to prepare the plans for the contractor.

It sounds like you are taking all the right steps, but are you really?

Many entrepreneurs have their first conversation with an architect after they have already selected the location and signed the lease, unaware of the expensive hurdles that may lie ahead of them. Here is a list of things you should consider before you make your final decision on the location and the space.

How can you minimize the construction cost and time?

Select space that previously had the same use as your business.
Select space that would not need wall and equipment relocation.
Select space that has ADA compliant restrooms.
Select space that has parking requirements satisfied and ADA compliant path of travel from the space into the space.

Yes, your best location would be someone who no longer wants to run their business and is selling the location. If you are not planning any modifications, such as moving walls, plumbing, electrical and equipment, you will not only save on cost of doing these moves, you will also save on the time it takes to prepare drawings, get permits from multiple entities, get inspections and build out. The shortest time a project takes from start to finish is about 6 months, and the longest can stretch to over a year. If you are already paying rent every month, it will add up.

Why is it time consuming and expensive to turn, for example, a shop into a café, or an office into an event venue? The different space uses have different building code requirements. Two different uses next door to each other will most likely trigger fire separation, which means rebuilding the wall between the units. Adding a food service element means engaging in the health department review, with time-consuming permitting, extra inspections, expensive plumbing and equipment, as well as replacing the finishes. As the construction cost of your remodel increases, so does your financial responsibility for making any ADA upgrades to the space, such as ramps, restrooms and accessible parking.

Some of these hurdles may seem very annoying. We meet business owners who run into these issues every day and the building or health departments are not forgiving of deviations. Even a small ice-cream shop may end up costing $100,000 or more to make it ready for the new use if it was not there before.

How do you make sure that you lease the right space?

You can ask the officials from the building and health departments for their opinion. But your best bet would be to hire an architect to perform a feasibility study. It will be less expensive than learning from your own mistakes and save a lot of time down the road. Here are the services and fees that architects offer.

What are the ways to maximize your revenue?

Figure our who your ideal customers are and find a location that draws them in (go where there is demand).
Design your brand (including your interior, storefront and signage) such that your customers are attracted to it and will bring their friends with them as well.
Make sure the location is visible.

You are an entrepreneur, so you’ve done your business plan and customer research, but just in case you have not, do consider marketing and branding as you open your place. In real estate, they say: “location, location location”. We also add “relevance”. Putting an ice-cream shop next to a school may not be healthy, but it will be relevant. A good idea is to find complimentary businesses. If you sell bread, you may want to be next to a deli or a coffee shop and so on. Additionally, having the sensitivity towards the type of a brand that will attract your customers and performing marketing research is key.

If a café is closing, and you want to open a new one instead, find out if it is because the owner is tired, or because this is not a successful location for a café. Maybe this is not the place to go!

What are the ways to make your costumers feel safe during COVID?

Street-facing counter to allow transactions from the sidewalk.
Exterior seating or retail area in a parklet, backyard or extra sidewalk space.
Large operable windows to demonstrate ventilation.
Easily cleanable surfaces and fewer touch points, such as touchless restroom fixtures and doors openable with your forearm.

When it comes to COVID, we are primarily concerned with two things in buildings: ventilation and avoiding touching a dirty surface. In California, we must take advantage of the weather and use the outdoors more as an option for your customers. Performing a touchless transaction from the sidewalk through an attractive counter in the storefront will work very well for those worried about being indoors. And ample, visible ventilation will address the concerns of those who want the traditional option to go into the space and experience the way things used to be.

Images in this blog are from Pinterest.