Choosing A Location For Your Small Business
What are "zoning laws"?
Zoning laws have to do with how the city is zoned in certain ways, usually to prevent and protect their residents. You have a residential area, and maybe a business and commercial zone. If you have heavy-duty manufacturing, for example, you don't want to necessarily put that in a residential area. There are other types of businesses also which are very restricted in that sense. I wouldn't worry about them until you apply for your license, because they'll let you know exactly up front what you have to do, and whether you're allowed to do it, especially if you own a home business.
What is a "commercial location"?
When choosing a location for your small business, a commercial location just means where industry is. A lot of it has to do with zoning laws and whether you're allowed to be in certain areas or not. However, commercial property may be for manufacturing or some type of industry, and they're a little bit different than residential which is mainly for living. There are real estate agents that handle only commercial. There are real estate agents that handle only industry, some deal with both. They're available; you look in the telephone book, the internet and so forth, they're all over the place.
How is the rent determined for a commercial location?
Well, usually the rent is based on a square footage basis, but it really depends on what you want. I mean there are a lot of folks for example, if you have different types of consulting businesses, or a business that you can work out of an office on a temporary basis, they may give it to you on some other basis, but that's not all that difficult. You don't want to jump to the first place you see, you want to look at several so you'll have price comparisons just as if you were looking at a home to rent or to buy. Some leases are fairly simple, but these can go from anywhere from one to five years. A lease can be very difficult, and you want to look at the terms very carefully. If you're not using an attorney, you remember that what you sign is what you sign, and you're going to be held to that.
