Have you ever wondered why some businesses just shut down and disappear? Maybe they moved, but you’re not sure why. Or maybe they closed down for a while then re-opened somewhere else. Katie & I saw one of her friends that had a story about closing down her Fresh Mexican restaurant this past week.
They always had tons of customers, even on slow nights. Their food was always on point. Their prices weren’t outrageous, important being it was so close to College of Charleston. And their trivia nights were something amazing, a packed house at least once a week! Despite all the positive accolades, they shut their doors last week.
The Explanation
Yo Burrito (the Fresh Mexican joint) closed because their lease was not renewed when their building was sold. They did not own the real estate they built their business on and they were at the mercy of the new landlords that bought the property. They had no intention to renew their lease when they bought the building, who is Yo Burrito to them?
As many good people in the world as there are, there’s still plenty that don’t give a rip about us and our budding/thriving/struggling businesses. The only way we can secure our own long-term success is to build our businesses on land that we own. If we own the land, our success or failure is dependent on us, nobody else.
The Bad Examples
Yo Burrito obviously built their business on rented property, leasing their building from someone. But what if we don’t have brick and mortar businesses? The same rules apply, don’t build on rented land.
Facebook has gone through some major changes recently and a lot of businesses suffered from them because they were building on rented land. That rented land was the Facebook platform. We all have some business that comes to mind right now that used to have a great Facebook presence in our newsfeed. What has happened to them?
The furniture company had the same problem when we originally had someone build our website. Someone else did all the work for us, they have the hosting packages and they ranked us pretty well. To this day the site has only undergone minor changes since it was created because ABG doesn’t own the land that website was built on. If they do anything they’ll have to start from scratch and lose years of traction they’ve built up. Is it worth it?
The Good Examples
I grew up in an entrepreneurial household where my mom & my step-father both owned their own businesses. My mom is a personal trainer and my step-dad installs interior glass and mirrors.
About 10 years ago my step-dad, along with my step-brother, purchased a plot of land so they could build a shop and run their businesses out of. Today, they still own the property and don’t have to worry about a landlord coming to charge them more rent or terminate their lease out of the blue.
My mom is a personal trainer, which is a bit more tricky when it comes to real estate. She doesn’t do house calls and she doesn’t own her own studio. BUT she also doesn’t work for the gym. She is one of the few personal trainers (in the country) that is allowed to work in the gym and just pay a fee to train there.
Her value comes in the one-on-one interactions with clients, it doesn’t matter is she’s in ABC gym or XYZ gym. Her people will come with her if she decides to leave (which has happened before) and the gym knows that, hence the reason she’s given a different set of rules than any joe schmoe that wants to train in that gym.
The Solution
Rented land is anything we don’t own, anything we can’t change, and anything that has the opportunity to kill our business if it’s taken away. Facebook (& all other social media) are all rented land.
You, nor I, have the power to affect what Facebook does. So if they get a wild hair and want to change how they operate, we have to live with it. We can complain and blog about it as much as we want, but just like the landlords to Yo Burrito, they don’t care.
Free blogs and forums (like Reddit) are all rented land as well. They are great tools to use, and they can really help our businesses. But we need to be ready to pivot and change if/when their rules change and we are no longer the benefactors of their business. We also need to hedge our bets by building our own platforms (email lists, websites, community, etc.) up so our customers won’t evaporate if that rented land goes away.
Look to build your business on land you own whether it’s your own website (that you own & have registered with hosting), your email list, or your physical brick and mortar store. When we own the land, we can make the rules. And when we own the land, we’re the only ones that can say if we have to close our doors.
Have you built your business on rented land and had the rug pulled from underneath you? How did you recover, I’d love to hear your stories.
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Chat with me on Twitter, I’d love to hear more about your opinions on rented land and how to secure your business’s future.
Have a great week!
