New York City is famous for many things and one of them is the incredibly high amount of rent required to start your own business. Even small business owners must pay a small fortune to start out their own store or service location. To get the most of your money, you need to be smart when making the final decision about the best place to rent an office in New York and to help, I’ve prepared my 6 super simple tips for finding the best rental for your business.

Smaller may be better

After the real estate crisis in the US almost a decade ago, increasingly more landlords are looking to diversify their tenants. The result of this is the unique opportunity for small business owners to find great office space at affordable price. Furthermore, a lot of the landlords had already divided larger office spaces into smaller ones for pretty much the same reasons listed above. The key to ensure that smaller, yet better located office space will work for you, is to be aware of your exact needs.

Negotiate a good lease period

Whether you are looking for a new lease period or are renting out office space to start out your small business, you can negotiate your way to a sweet deal. As already mentioned, after the worldwide real estate crunch, landlords have completely changed their target customer and nowadays, both small and large businesses can take advantage of premium real estate with very flexible lease periods, starting from just 2 years.

Check for concessions

You can negotiate your way, not only through the lease period, but also with the rent amount. You may think that this is not that easy, but the reality is, you can easily negotiate for a price decrease by asking for concessions – landlords will most of the time be more than happy to offer discounts, even periods without rent, in exchange for improvements on the property or renovations.

Consider the security deposit

Every landlord is highly concerned with the risks associated with your business moving in and him losing his revenue, therefore be prepared to pay up to 10% upfront as a security deposit. Real estate professionals often agree that small businesses tend to underestimate the importance of the security deposit and hence not include in the initial calculations for renting office space.

Research the market

Take advantage of the numerous apps and websites offering office space for rent in New York. There are hundreds of new rentals listed daily, so eventually you will find the best spot for your business. The most notable websites to consider are NY-Offices.com, 42floors.com and Offices.net

Find out more about the landlord

While it may seem incredibly obvious, it’s amazing how many business owners underestimate the process of researching more information about the landlord. There are numerous web services, as well as forums and message boards where you can get honest feedback about the reputation of a particular landlord.  After all, it’s always best to spend a few hours doing research than getting locked into a lease for multiple years with someone, who employs bad business practices.