Finding your office location

You have decided on the city where your practice will be located, so your next step is to find an office. You have several choices: You can buy a building or you can lease an office. At the beginning of your search, don’t rule out either option, because you don’t know what you might find.

You may want to work with a commercial realtor to help guide you through the decision. A commercial realtor who knows the area and the buildings available might be a tremendous help, but you should be aware of several things:

1. The realtor is going to get his or her commission from the property owner, so they may push locations that are not in your best interest merely to gain a commission.

2. The realtor may or may not be able to help you negotiate the lease.

3. Many commercial realtors don’t know the requirements of a chiropractic office. For example: If you are including x-ray equipment, the realtor might not be aware of the restrictions on x-ray for that location.

4. Realtors may also have “tunnel vision,” assuming that a chiropractic office is different from other health care professions. We know of one realtor who said there were no properties available in town because there were no chiropractic offices for lease!

Before you begin looking for offices, have a very clear idea of your needs. (Read our “Designing your office” article.) Know how much space you will need and the room configuration you want.

If you anticipate having a massage therapist or other ancillary providers in the office, account for these people in your space estimates. Above all, don’t let a realtor talk you into more space than you need. You might be able to find a space that could be expanded later, but don’t tie up your cash flow in a large office that is not going to produce revenue in every square foot of space.

Keep in mind one principle of advertising: location and advertising are trade-offs. That is, if you have a great location, you won’t have to advertise as much; if you have a location that’s less easy to find and off the main roads, you will have to advertise more in order to get people there. This principle is more important in the beginning as you build up a patient base; later on, it will be less of a factor.

Some additional suggestions:

• You might want to consider locating your office in a home. Some chiropractors like living above the office or having a home environment for the practice. Parking may a problem, though. Unless the building has already been zoned for professional practice you might have to endure the lengthy re-zoning process.

• If you are looking for an office in a strip mall, find a location that can be “pegged” to a prominent business or city area, so you can easily give directions. Stating “behind Panera Bread” or “next to Wal-Mart” or “just beyond the city park” is helpful in directing people to your office.

• Look on the “going home” side of the street. McDonald’s and other fast food chains try to find the side of the street that people use when going home from work, to attract working people to stop in the afternoon. This concept would be more important if you are located in a suburban area.

• Be creative and think outside the box in considering potential locations. We know one DC who converted an old gas station into a great office location!

One big factor in evaluating different offices is the number of changes you’ll need to make in order to make the office what you want. Costs for “build out” (leasehold improvements, in accountant terms) can be many thousands of dollars. If you and your family are able to do the improvements yourself, and the property owner agrees, you will save much money. It seems to be a general rule of thumb that newer buildings and offices in locations with many offices (strip malls, office complexes) are less amenable to allowing you to do your own build-out. It never hurts to ask, though.

Don’t be afraid to walk away from a location. Just as in the search for a house, you might have to look for a while, to change realtors several times, and walk away from potential deals if the property owner refuses to negotiate. If you are persistent, you may not find the “perfect” office, but you will probably find a good office that you can make into something resembling what you want. In this instance, as others, persistence pays.

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