Run your own race 🏃‍♀️‍➡️

👋 Hi, it's Faith! I'm exciting to share my first official Pedal blog today. I'll be popping up alongside Sheila and Abby now and again, so if something sounds new or foreign to these pages (like competitive running or vegetarian cooking), don't panic...it's just me. Enjoy!

If you’re like me and 90% of my friends, your new years resolutions involve some version of: “getting to the gym more,” “eating healthier,” or “running a marathon" -- fun crowd we are, I know. But we’re also committed, and training for and running a marathon will keep us motivated all year long.

What do we do first? We develop personalized training plans. Getting “marathon ready” is anything but standard, so how long it takes to be “ready” varies according to the individual. We each have to factor in time to build up endurance and pace plus time to cross train for strength all while building in recovery time and days off. 

Not to #humblebrag, but since I’ve run multiple marathons in the past, I know how long it’ll take me to be race-ready. Once I begin training in earnest, within three months I’ll knock down 10Ks. By month six I’ll be conquering 13 miles. At month eight, I’ll end up cancelling weekend plans to squeeze in final long runs (I told you I was fun). Then I’ll enter the home stretch – tapering down with a Theragun and way too many energy chews. In other words, I can be prepared to run all 26.2 miles in nine months.

We have a Pedal Retailer who is also an ultramarathoner; he can be race ready a lot faster. We have two cofounders who would take a whole lot longer than nine months; partly because they’re not distance runners, but mostly because they’d stop running as soon as they reached an intriguing “For Lease” sign, liquor license application, or any location of Call Your Mother – whichever they came upon first. 

The time between signing your lease and getting open is just like training for a marathon. Every business has a different timeline to opening "race" day, so every business has a different timeline for when they can open and start paying rent. The amount of time your business needs to get open is entirely dependent on your business; the complexity of your buildout, the physical conditions of the retail space, and your pre-opening work like staff training and marketing will determine exactly how many months, weeks, and days you’ll need to get open. 

👟 So back to the race…I think we can agree that given my training schedule, it would not be a good idea for me to legally commit to running a marathon in three months, right? If my body needs nine months to get ready, forcing myself to start the race after only three is a recipe for disaster.

Here’s the connection –

A rent commencement date that doesn’t allow you enough time to get open properly is the equivalent of showing up to run a marathon with insufficient or incomplete training. Best case, it’s painful (hello blisters and strained hamstrings), and worst case, it’s downright dangerous -- no one wants heat exhaustion or a cardiac event. And unlike a race where you can pull out before the big day, you can’t do that with a lease.

⚡️ Negotiating a rent commencement date that is tied to your buildout and pre-opening timeline is critical, and it’s your responsibility. 

When a landlord sets the rent commencement date in the first draft of the LOI, they choose a date that works for them. Their priority is getting rent from tenants as soon as possible, but that’s not the only reason. They literally do not know how long it’ll take you to get ready to open. They don’t know the specifics of your business plan, your design criteria, or your pre-opening work. It’s your job to know how long all of this will take and your broker's job to negotiate the date accordingly. 

💡And on that note -- your broker knows lots of things, like how to structure and negotiate your rent commencement date, but she doesn’t know your specific timeline needs. That part has to come from your business plan. And as you probably guessed, we work all that out together in Dream Space.

At negotiation time, it’s normal to encounter resistance when we push back on rent commencement dates, but ultimately, planning sufficient time to build out benefits all parties. Your landlord doesn’t want you to limp into opening day or to flame out with a hamstring strain at mile six. The goal is for everyone to get to the finish line in as good of shape as possible – uninjured and just a little tired.