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My Store from start to finish
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132 posts in this topic

My work hours are different than the store hours. Im used to 12 hour days/7 days a week/365 days a year, working with my wife. Her mother is korean and doesnt believe in anything less than a 12 hour work day. There is always work to do when you own your own business. As she would say, "if you not working 12 hours in a day, 365 days a year, you poor.". She told me that the first day i worked at my wife's store.

Wow Jason, I do not envy your mother-in-law! lol

All the best for the new store, keep us updated! (thumbs u

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Update. Did not like the lease at first, terms were wierd, but its good now signed sealed delivered. A small remodel next week. Pictures will come soon, might postpone until work is complete though. Had dental work done today, sucked. Out of it.

Good luck with your new store. Please tell me that you had some legal counsel when signing your lease. There is always some tricky language involved with them and almost everything in the lease is negotiable. For instance, your ownership of the space and contents ends at the walls. Most leases are written so that once something is physically attached to the drywall or facade (slatboard, fixtures, signage etc.) it immediately becomes the property of the landlord and you cannot remove it if you were to terminate the lease for some reason in the future. This can be negotiated through build-out allowances where the landlord essentially pays you for any building improvements you make via your initial remodeling. Sometimes you can get that allowance in the form of free rent for X number of months, and sometimes they will cut you a check at the time that you receive your occupancy permit. Another thing to look into are the requisites for insurance. The landlord will require you to carry certain amount of liability coverage. The costs for these can vary but, depending on the lease's requirements you can run into very high unexpected costs. We had a situation where one of our landlords required us to carry a certain amount of worker's comp insurance on our employees. We already had it in place, but that was something unique to that particular landlord and would have been a large unexpected expense if we had not.

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Update. Did not like the lease at first, terms were wierd, but its good now signed sealed delivered. A small remodel next week. Pictures will come soon, might postpone until work is complete though. Had dental work done today, sucked. Out of it.

Good luck with your new store. Please tell me that you had some legal counsel when signing your lease. There is always some tricky language involved with them and almost everything in the lease is negotiable. For instance, your ownership of the space and contents ends at the walls. Most leases are written so that once something is physically attached to the drywall or facade (slatboard, fixtures, signage etc.) it immediately becomes the property of the landlord and you cannot remove it if you were to terminate the lease for some reason in the future. This can be negotiated through build-out allowances where the landlord essentially pays you for any building improvements you make via your initial remodeling. Sometimes you can get that allowance in the form of free rent for X number of months, and sometimes they will cut you a check at the time that you receive your occupancy permit. Another thing to look into are the requisites for insurance. The landlord will require you to carry certain amount of liability coverage. The costs for these can vary but, depending on the lease's requirements you can run into very high unexpected costs. We had a situation where one of our landlords required us to carry a certain amount of worker's comp insurance on our employees. We already had it in place, but that was something unique to that particular landlord and would have been a large unexpected expense if we had not.

All fantastic advice. Thanks a lot mr. B. The owner of the building is a friend of my wife's mother, so after yelling at him in korean for a few days, she got him to make the lease a korean one, not an american one. I did have a legal buddy look at the lease and for a fee, he said it was good. Would have been nice if it was free but nothing ever is.

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Update. Did not like the lease at first, terms were wierd, but its good now signed sealed delivered. A small remodel next week. Pictures will come soon, might postpone until work is complete though. Had dental work done today, sucked. Out of it.

Good luck with your new store. Please tell me that you had some legal counsel when signing your lease. There is always some tricky language involved with them and almost everything in the lease is negotiable. For instance, your ownership of the space and contents ends at the walls. Most leases are written so that once something is physically attached to the drywall or facade (slatboard, fixtures, signage etc.) it immediately becomes the property of the landlord and you cannot remove it if you were to terminate the lease for some reason in the future. This can be negotiated through build-out allowances where the landlord essentially pays you for any building improvements you make via your initial remodeling. Sometimes you can get that allowance in the form of free rent for X number of months, and sometimes they will cut you a check at the time that you receive your occupancy permit. Another thing to look into are the requisites for insurance. The landlord will require you to carry certain amount of liability coverage. The costs for these can vary but, depending on the lease's requirements you can run into very high unexpected costs. We had a situation where one of our landlords required us to carry a certain amount of worker's comp insurance on our employees. We already had it in place, but that was something unique to that particular landlord and would have been a large unexpected expense if we had not.

All fantastic advice. Thanks a lot mr. B. The owner of the building is a friend of my wife's mother, so after yelling at him in korean for a few days, she got him to make the lease a korean one, not an american one. I did have a legal buddy look at the lease and for a fee, he said it was good. Would have been nice if it was free but nothing ever is.

A Chinese lady, Mrs. Gao, owns the building that my newest store is in. She is the sweetest, most honorable, wonderful landlord that I could ever wish for. One of my other stores has a guy who is the exact opposite. A stingy, tight, surly guy who thinks he is the smartest person in every room. He's always person_without_enough_empathying that his tenants think they are entitled, when he is usually the only problem. It takes all kinds. Good luck!

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Update

So here are a few photos of before the small renovation.

fe46f0e377bf372c3f9163bac1704f58.jpg

The wall on the right will be opened up, there is a back room behind that wall and this will give me more space. Behind that door is a hallway. On the right is the backroom that will be opened up with the removal of some wall. On the left is an office area. Ill use it as my office. There is also a restroom in the very back.

 

1625b4f4fece6ff00ae6a320f4410191.jpg

This is that back room. It will now be opened up to the front. It used to be some sort of employee break room.

 

Renovations will be done this week and will post pictures after that.

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obviously not a big deal, but some can you list some room dimensions at some point? obviously that is a factor in what decisions are made.

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Where are you putting the gaming nerds?

 

:jokealert:

lol. Ill give them the back room probably.

I like the photos! It looks like a nice spot. Nice floors, lots of windows, etc etc...

Ty

obviously not a big deal, but some can you list some room dimensions at some point? obviously that is a factor in what decisions are made.

Im might do that at some point.

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Just getting caught up and the space looks great. Love the light colored hard wood floors and all the windows. Now its your job to cover them all up with comic book posters like all the other comic book shops in my area.

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