SELF reflection: how to know when it's time to expand 🕒

Have you ever been 💘 love bombed by retail real estate? Oh, yes, it’s a thing.

It goes like this: you’re just minding your own business when POW! [cue the romantic lighting and flattery] In an email, phone call, or personal visit — it’s a retail real estate broker who 😍 loooooves what you’re doing and has an amazing new location for your amazing business, or she wants to help you find some because you are 🔥 hottttttt.

When you’re running a successful (or successful to outside eyes) business, it’s really just a matter of time before you’ll start receiving unsolicited offers to consider new real estate opportunities. Now I know from personal experience running a retail business day-in-and-day-out, that there’s little more seductive that the excitement of something new and shiny and MORE.

“It’s 1800sf in a beautiful new development next door to Orangetheory…”

- or -

“The longtime tenant is retiring, so that gem of a space is coming available in the summer…”

- and -

“There’s such a need for what you do over here…”

But the truth is that the decision to open a second, or third, or seventh bricks-and-mortar location requires as much, if not more, careful consideration as you put into your first location. Considering another lease is about weighing the opportunity and the obligation.

So before you spend too much time and energy on an unsolicited opportunity, here’s a handy framework to check your SELF:

S - Staffing - how does this opportunity work with your existing labor model? Can you run another location with your existing management structure? Might there be any economies of scale?

E - Energy - do you have the energy/ bandwidth to take this on right now? How does the timing of this opportunity fit with your broader business strategic plan? Can your current business bear your divided attention?

L - Locations - how does this new opportunity work with your existing locations? Does it cannibalize your sales? How does the customer base there compare to your existing customer base? Can your current management team oversee this location as well? Can you use the same suppliers?

F - Funding - do you have the funds in place to finance a new store’s capital budget? If not, how long will it take for you to secure financing, and how will you do it?

Remember that it’s okay to let the flattery feel good. It’s GOOD to feel proud and desired and hottttttt. But that doesn’t require you to derail your current business development plans or rush into major decisions. So when you get a love-bombing call, it’s a good practice to be open with your level of interest and financial and energetic capacity. I promise there will be more opportunities in the future.