My rent is costing my business too much. Is it time to do some strategic planning?

QUESTION.
I don't know if you can help me. I need to keep my business alive; it's about to go under. Where can I find financing to enable me to move to a smaller leased building? There will be costs required to renovate retail space to accomodate a laundrymat. Can you help?

ANSWER.
I can only make comments. Your question is a bit cryptic. My take on it is that you have a laundry business that is failing and has been failing for some time. You think the rent obligations are killing you and you want to move to another location, but don't have the cash to pay for the move. Am I correct?

If so, then you need to put together a business plan regarding your laundry business. You should have written a business plan a long time ago. If you had, then you probably wouldn't be having your current problems. But that's something that is in the past. You need to move forward. Write a business plan for your business. One of the costs of doing business is moving your business to a new location. Your business plan will document how much your "new business" will make over the next three years. Those revenues will justify the move. The plan will hopefully convince a bank to loan you the money necessary to make the move. Funny thing is, if it won't, then your business deserves to tank anyway.

By the way, when you write your business plan you might discover that you don't need to move. Instead, you need to start marketing so more business comes your way. It is quite costly to move a laundry business. So I suspect that is not the best alternative for you to consider.

If a bank won't help, then you might consider taking on a partner who can sink the necessary cash into the business so it will stay afloat. You still need a business plan so you will have something to show the potential partner when you try to talk her into joining you.

Take a look at the following links on business plan writing. See

Pick a Business

Write a Business Plan

I highly recommend you contact your local SCORE chapter and schedule an appointment for a face-to-face counseling session with two SCORE volunteers. See

http://www.score.org/findscore/chapter_maps.html

and type your zip code into the appropriate slot. Those sessions are free, and you will get some good comments on your situation from the counselors. I hope my comments are helpful. Good luck! Regards, -Jeff

Jeff Lippincott
SCORE.org Counselor
Princeton, NJ
scoreprinceton @ aol.com
www.scoreprinceton.org
http://www.jlippin.com/