How I negotiate great rent deals with my retail landlords

So can you give an example?

There was one particular site we were able to get a $50,000 contribution amortised into the lease, and we’re only paying back $28,000 over seven years. By focusing on a small amount of deals, we’re able to get well-tailored deals.

Why is it exactly you’re able to get these types of deals?

Because we’re able to go to the landlord and say we have a particular person, we have a particular site, and given them the person’s business experience, we can show that they are qualified to go forward. So we can say we’re not willing to give a certain amount of money for some things.

So you’re finding the franchisee, then the site.

We are. But it is because we are only focusing on a handful of sites, we won’t have 20 sites on our radar in the hope we’ll get a franchisee loaded in. We’ll aim for five. We’ll put some advertising out there but we won’t fully commit until we have someone.

Talk about your approach in these types of meetings. Are you forceful, polite or aggressive?

I think you have to be relatively transparent, because a good lease is a good lease, and any lease has value. We’ve just made it personal by showing that we have a person ready to go into these locations, and that will make the landlord more motivated to put us in there.

At the end of the day, they have just as much invested in the place as we do.

It’s obviously getting you results.

We’ve been getting at or below market rent, but reasonable contributions, and we’re relaying that back to the franchisee; that’s allowing us to get these types of deals.

So for other retailers worrying about rents, what advice would you give them?

In this current environment, you need to be patient: Wait your time for the right deal.