I’ve been hearing from some friends lately that commercial landlords and property managers have been applying pressure and asking for higher rent, while at the same time reducing services that they provide. This made me think that it might be a good time to have a discussion about how much rent you should be paying for your business. It’s easy to get caught up in the annual rent increases and the lure of a fancy main street location, but business owners need to take a good, hard look at the numbers before committing to a lease.

This is a crazy time of year for everyone. Our daily lives are filled up with decorating, shopping, baking, kids’ holiday concerts and recitals, travel, and more. On top of everything, it’s the busiest time of year for most businesses. It’s a tough ask to add one more thing to your list, but I’d like to suggest you put in a little extra effort to get your bookkeeping under control before the end of the year. I recommend taking three basic steps now to make sure your books are ready to go when you need them to be.