How To Select The Right Space
For Your Company

Lease Length:

How long a lease is desired by the landlord?

Full Service:

Is five days a week janitorial service included in the rent?  Is electricity, heating, and cooling included?  Full service type leases are very costly for the landlord. If these are not included you are looking at a gross lease, which is common in commercial real estate.  Leases requiring tenants to also pay for property taxes and repairs are called triple net, and are more common for large spaces.

Parking:

Is there ample parking?

Telecommunications:

Is the property pre-wired for high quality phone lines? Is DSL available?

Proximity:

What's the travel time from the site to adjoining cities?

Common Areas: 

Anticipate your needs for common areas in the office.  Alternatively, it can be more cost effective for small businesses to share certain facilities with other professional companies in the office building.  Your employees and or visitors will probably need a reception area, coffee, beverages, water dispenser, vending machines, microwave, kitchen and dining area, copier area, and or conference rooms.

Warehouse:

Does the site have a warehouse?  What type of entryway does it offer?  If the site is without a warehouse might a nearby self storage facility common throughout Solano county help?

Size:

Commercial property normally includes the share of common areas like halls and restrooms in the total square footage on the lease.  Look more at the configuration of the site for how it can creatively meet your needs, rather than compare square footage sizing. For example see how many desks or people the space can accommodate.

Home Based Businesses:

Possibly most home-based businesses in Solano County are illegal according to local codes.  Like most cities in our country, home-based businesses can disturb neighbors.  Any single issue from visitor traffic to non-residential garbage, or receiving package deliveries to business signs can make a home-based business illegal.  Make certain to try and file a home occupation permit, and get the full list of all the regulations from the city's planning department. 

Getting Around Complex Home Based Business Restrictions - Three Options:

1. Companies like Mail Boxes, Etc without office space rentals and services, can no longer legally receive mail for businesses without the public being told that it is a private mailbox receiving service.  If the post office discovers this, they can stop all mail delivery, unless you tell each person you do business with, that you have a private mailbox.  All incoming mail according to CMRA postal regulations must state APrivate Mail Box@ or for short APMB@. 

2. Office Business Centers located across the United States are maybe the wisest solution for the home-based business.  Office Business Centers need not be subject to CMRA postal regulations.  You can rent professionally furnished offices or larger conference rooms by the hour for your meetings.  Your company name can be on the building directory.  Your stationary and business cards can get a real business address without the APMB@ designation.  Office Business Centers have many other benefits from professional postage meter imprints, to copiers and more.  You can later grow into a full time private office in the Office Business Center too.

3. Do what most successful businesses do, rent a full time office space.

Image:

Does the building convey the image your business seeks? What types of businesses share the building with you?