Happy Wednesday, powerful people! Last post, we discussed a few of the most popular ways of acquiring a physical space for your business - purchasing, leasing, or co-working. Today's post will focus on the nuts and bolts of a commercial real estate purchase, including a general, and highly simplified, overview of the process and what you need to know if you're thinking about buying commercial real estate to house your business.

Congrats, fellow boss lady! You’re ready to create a physical space for your business. Luckily, there are a variety of options available for new business owners, ranging from co-working to traditional leases to buying. This post is an introduction to the variety of options that are available and will kick off a series about taking up physical space that complements hustle and doing so in a way that protects you legally and financially. Without further ado, let us introduce the applicants.

What I can tell you is that renting a commercial space is nothing like renting an apartment or a home. Negotiating a lease for commercial space takes due diligence, business planning, budgeting, patience, and a willingness to walk away from a bad deal. For the purposes of this article, I want to give you a sense of what to expect when thinking about entering into a formal lease for your business. I do not mean a co-working space agreement or a sublease. When I say lease here, I mean a lease where your business is named as the tenant (or the "lessee"). You might personally sign a guaranty, which we will talk about more a bit later.

In a sincere effort to be viewed as a polite and a selfless individual that lives to care for and accommodate others, we forget that these characteristics are "sold to many of us as a defining feature of the good woman." As women, we are forever faced with the catch-22 conundrum of how to be “good women,” as defined by antiquated social norms, while being fierce in our business endeavors?

The cycle must be broken. Just look at successful women - the women that we envy and admire, like Madeline Albright, Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett, Lilly Singh, Mindy Kaling, Elaine Welteroth - these are just some of the women that broke free from the binds of traditional definitions of what makes a woman “good.” Does this mean that these women don't care about their families, are bad mothers and partners, or are somehow not good people? No. In fact, many of these women are visionaries, community advocates, and true exemplars of conquering for causes of positive consequence. If you dig deeper, the stories of these women show a pattern of bravely embracing the un-traditional.

An LLC is form of doing business, registered with the Secretary of State, that combines the tax advantage of pass-through tax treatment for income with the limited liability and flexible ownership structure. I know, I know, I've fallen into legal-ese again. Let's break this down:

A sole proprietorship, which I will refer to as a “sole prop,” is an unincorporated business, which means you didn’t file any paperwork with the secretary of state, and you don’t have a separate taxpayer ID number (akin to a social security number for a business). Any income that you make in carrying on the business is reported with your personal social security number. You don’t have an operating agreement or a shareholder agreement. You might use a “DBA” – a “doing business as” for marketing purposes, but it’s still you running the show and reporting the profits received.

But, the sad truth is that competence alone doesn’t magically bring you clients or open the doors to your dream job. Competence gets the job done, but it does not get you the job. What does? The ability to build lasting business relationships within a community that fits the person that you are right now, not the person that you think the world wants you to be. For me, I could not build sustainable business relationships for a long time - that is, until I learned how to honor my whole self whenever I walk into any networking space. I went from hiding in bathroom stalls to closing multi-million dollar deals that I generated from my network.

By hanging out with yourself, you’ll spend time learning about the world around you. Once you understand the world around you, only then can you choose how to enter it. Even if what you do is miles away from current events, you should still be aware of what’s going on. By contributing your craft to the world, whatever it may be, you are choosing to enter it, so you need to know the world receiving your craft.

You choose how to enter any space. Of course, your entry may require navigating unfamiliar territory, but you can always control you. You know you, and you can teach people how to handle that which you know the best - you. If someone has a problem with it, that’s their problem. Repeat after me - that’s THEIR problem.

Not sure if you’re in the right space? Trust your gut. If you want to leave after 15 minutes because you want to go home and binge on your new Netflix obsession, make yourself stick it out, but if you leave because you’re surrounded by people with whom you share no cause, no profession or passion, then get the F out of there and go do something better with your night. Stop wasting your value in spaces that don’t coincide with your values. Your time is valuable and limited. Make sure you make intentional and self-aware choices about the spaces you seek business, and be open to organic connections.

Question: How do you deal with imposter syndrome?

Whenever I feel that misplaced feeling that I am somehow not meant to be in a professional space, I ask myself one simple question: "What would a straight white man do?" That question usually turns my panic into power nearly instantaneously. I mean, let’s be honest - when did you last witness a straight white male last suffer from imposter syndrome? Be honest.