One big barrier to starting a storefront businesses
Try getting a commercial leasing agent to call you back
I participated in a panel discussion on commercial leasing this past week, sponsored by Tacoma's community & economic development department, for current and prospective business owners interested in starting or expanding their businesses. There were four panelists: me, an attorney, a commercial leasing agent, and the city of Tacoma's downtown development advocate.
One piece of advice was thrown about again and again: work with a commercial realtor! Do not try to negotiate this process unrepresented.
I agree with this advice. I even mentioned during the panel that I may not have opened Fernseed had I not connected with the realtor who walked me through my first commercial lease negotiation. The reason for that is also the problem: he was the only agent that returned my call.
I moved to Tacoma in 2018 knowing I wanted to open a shop. Owning a retail business was a lifelong dream, but one that I had deferred for the same reason most people defer big dreams, like maybe not believing in myself? But Tacoma was a clean slate, and I was going for it this time.
Fernseed started as a nebulous concept about developing design-forward plant care products and vessels. I picked the name "Fernseed" because I needed a domain for the Etsy shop, so I Googled "Scandinavian plant legends" and the myth of the Fernseed came up. At first I thought I'd make all my own products, but then I went to a craft fair, met Jessica Egan of Little Fire Ceramics, and decided that instead of trying to make everything myself, I'd open a storefront that sold beautiful handmade pottery and thoughtfully designed plant care products made by other people.
I built a basic Shopify landing page for this shop concept as a tool to demonstrate I was serious when I started reaching out to potential vendors, and this was the website I linked to in my initial emails to leasing agents when I started seriously looking for retail space.
I probably called or emailed a dozen commercial agents, and only one, Kyle Prosser, got back to me. Kyle asked to meet for coffee to hear more about my concept. I can't remember the details of that first meeting, but I'm sure I conveyed that I had *some* experience running a business before—I had produced a series of vintage pop-up markets in Chicago—and I pointed to similar plant shops in Seattle and Portland that were doing well. So Kyle started looking for retail space on my behalf, having the inside line on spaces that aren't listed yet on Loopnet, and I emailed him listings I was interested in. At one point he even took me on a driving tour of Tacoma, pointing out neighborhoods, new developments, proposed renovations, business closures and openings, and who owns what where. (He also drove me by the 10 Things I Hate About You house, an important Tacoma landmark.)
You have to understand that for a person like me who looked at vacant storefronts for years just envisioning things, having someone drive me around a city shooting the shit about the local commercial real estate landscape was kind of lighting my brain on fire. I finally felt like I was where I was actually supposed to be instead of staring through a storefront window on an icy sidewalk, peering in.
Maybe I said something to Kyle in that first email or meeting that gave him the confidence that I wasn't going to waste his time kicking the tires on a business idea and then ghosting, but for whatever reason, he gave me the time of day, and if he hadn't, I would not be where I am now.
Being taken seriously was that important in the early stage of this business.
I said something at the panel about this. While it's great advice to "work with a commercial realtor," for most people who have not yet started a business, just getting someone in a commercial leasing office to return your phone call is a struggle. After the event I asked my fellow panelist, the agent, if this was just my perception or if it was actually the case that most agents won't get back to you if you don't have a current track record in storefront leasing. His response was yes, that is absolutely the case. If you leave a voicemail saying you have a business idea and you're looking for space, most agents will probably just delete it.
I get why. It's not the prospective tenants who are paying these agents, it's the building owners, so there's really no commitment on the tire kicker's side to not waste someone's time driving around to vacant storefronts and the 10 Things I Hate About You house if you're just feeling out the market and not actually prepared to open anything.
But what about the dozens of people who *are* ready to go from pop-up markets and food carts to full-time storefront operation? It's a scary leap to take. It helps if while you're taking that leap, you're surrounded by at least some people telling you, "this is normal, people do this all the time, this is an interesting idea, I would be happy to represent you in this process."
Of course not everyone struggles with the need for an initial boost of confidence at the startup phase, but in my experience, when you tell people what you're dreaming up, no matter how successful it could ultimately be, you are going to get feedback that is 90% focused on why this thing won't work. (I wrote about this skepticism more in depth in a post called How Many Blankets Can You Sell.) Now that’s one thing if you’re steeped in a business culture that celebrates and invests in outrageous, world changing ideas knowing 99% of them will fail (and fetishizes failure), but it’s different if you’re opening, let’s say, a cat cafe in Tacoma, Washington.
How hard do you think it was for the person opening a cat cafe to get a commercial leasing agent in Tacoma to return their phone calls?
A what? Like a little tea room for cats?
Click.
There are so many concepts that are new and different and weird and (always) a huge risk to the people willing to take on the monumental task of hanging a shingle not knowing whether a business idea will take off in a particular geographic area, and if we kill half of them at the "searching for retail space" phase because it's just so hard to get a call back, how many of our storefronts will just remain vacant, or only available to the folks that have a proven track record already? Where does that leave space for actual storefront retail and restaurant innovation, which is so important in the post-shopping mall, post-Walmart/Amazon/Dollar General, post-COVID economy?
I think Tacoma is doing a good job of addressing this issue by producing panels like the one I just sat on, and dedicating a team of people to community and economic development whose primary job is focused on assisting entrepreneurs in getting from the tire kicking phase to occupying—and continuing to operate in—retail space. Everyone here knows about Spaceworks, a micro business incubator that focuses some of its work on connecting artists and entrepreneurs with available commercial space through direct property management, community connections with building owners, and advocacy. I love that Spaceworks exists here. We need more of these types of organizations in all places.
I'm sure there are dozens of other approaches to this very simple problem that are working in cities all over the place. I would love to hear about them. And if you occupy a storefront space, I would love to hear about your experience leasing or purchasing property. Did you get callbacks? Just hit reply to this email to tell me about it.
Remember that you can also submit your current business dilemmas as questions (or rants, even) for me to respond to in a future post. I think of this less as an advice column and more like a "let me riff on your situation for a moment so I'm not just talking about the view from my window all the time here" thing. Read the first one of these posts here, then reply to this email if you want to submit a situation of your own. (Yes, it can totally remain anonymous!)