Are you sick of having a landlord and paying dead rent? If so, this episode might give you the nudge to start considering purchasing your premises, becoming your own landlord, and building long-term assets.
I am joined by four podiatrists who have taken the plunge into property ownership, and they would encourage you to do the same.
26th – 27th July, 2024 – CAIRNS
This is the best two-day podiatry training program in the world, and it has been designed just for podiatrists. If you want to give your podiatry business the boost it needs, or you’re considering starting a podiatry business, block out the dates now and plan on attending. I 100% Guarantee you will love it and if not, I’ll give you 2X what you paid, that’s how confident I am.
iMy Guests are:
- Jessica Haydock – Sole Focus Podiatry, Toowoomba, Queensland.
- Jonathan Small – Health First Foot & Gait Clinic, Southam, UK.
- Elan Silver – Silver Podiatry, Perth, Western Australia.
- Chloe Wear – The Woodvale Podiatrist, Perth, Western Australia.
I asked them all the same five questions; however, there were a few random questions in between.
- How many years did you rent before purchasing your premises?
- What prompted you to buy, and was there a specific trigger?
- From memory, were your repayments more or less than your rent or the same?
- What are the biggest benefits of owning your premises?
- Do you have any property purchasing tips?
If you have any questions about this episode, you can contact me at tyson@podiatrylegends.com
Podiatry Business Coaching: For Podiatrists that Think Differently
Most of my coaching clients think differently to the average cookie-cutter podiatrist, which is why they choose to work with me over a larger cookie-cutter coaching company.
I like working with podiatrists who don’t have big egos; are quiet achievers and like flying under the radar, but they do want to evolve their podiatry businesses into something special, something they can be proud of and say, “This is mine”.
If this sounds like you, we should talk.
You can visit my website, www.tysonfranklin.com, for more information or use my ONLINE CALENDAR to schedule a free thirty-minute Zoom meeting.
After we talk, you will have more clarity on what is best for you and your business.
“I was a frustrated business owner for five years until I started working with Tyson. He helped me transform my business in a matter of months, resulting in an instant increase in revenue and the ability to attract and retain top quality podiatrists. Over the past three and a half years, working with Tyson has changed my life drastically. I was able to take time off to start a family, triple my business revenue, and finally achieve work-life balance. I highly recommend Tyson to anyone who is looking for a business coach.”
– Jessica Haydock (Sole Focus Podiatry, Toowoomba)
YouTube
Have you checked out my YouTube Channel – TYSON E FRANKLIN?
Full Transcript (Unedited):
[00:00:00] Tyson E Franklin: Hi, I’m Tyson Franklin. And welcome to this week’s episode of the Podiatry Legends Podcast. The podcast designed to help you feel, see, and think differently about the Podiatry profession. Today’s episode is titled the benefits of purchasing your premises. Now I did a call out to a number of podiatrists to find out if they wanted to talk about this particular subject, four people decided to come on the podcast and share their thoughts behind this particular subject.
[00:00:24] Ask them five very simple questions. The first one was, how many years did you rent before purchasing your premises? The second question was what prompted you to buy and was there a particular trigger? The question was from memory where your repayments more or less than your rent or about the same. You’d be surprised as some of the answers here. The fourth question was, what are your biggest benefits of owning your own premises? And the fifth one was, do you have any property purchasing tips? There’s some great thoughts and ideas shared here.
[00:00:52] The four Podiatry said had joining me, Jessica Haydock in Toowoomba, Jonathan Small, of course, in the UK and two podiatrists in [00:01:00] Perth, Elan, Silver and Chloe Wear. What I’ve done is individual interviews. And what you’ll hear is a swoosh noise in between each interview, but before we get started, If you’re enjoying this podcast, please. Tell you Podiatry friends and consider leaving a rating review on whatever podcast platform you happen to be listening to.
[00:01:19] Now, if you’re watching the video. Of this, because it is on my YouTube channel at Tyson E Franklin. Give us a thumbs up the thumbs up icon and consider hitting the bell and say, every time I release a video, whether it’s about the podcast or a video that I usually do weekly, you will be informed whenever a new video comes out.
[00:01:38] So I want you to sit back and relax. If you’re watching the video. Enjoy the video. If you happen to be listening to this on the podcast, please drive carefully. Don’t take notes while you’re driving. You might want to take some notes afterwards because I think you’re really going to enjoy this? And what I’ll do is I’ll come on at the end. And I will share some of my takeaways and a few other thoughts on what the [00:02:00] guests actually shared in this episode. Enjoy.
[00:02:03] So with me now is my first guest. It is Jessica Haydock from Soul Focus Podiatry in Toowoomba, Queensland, which is about two hours west of Brisbane. So if you’re overseas and you’re wondering where Toowoomba is, now you know. And if you want to have a holiday there, it is a fantastic place to visit. So Jessica, welcome to the show.
[00:02:22] Thank you for having me, Tyson. And if we do chuckle a couple of times during this recording, it’s because I keep buggering things up all the time. And Jessica is such a professional that she is just going along with it. So I’m going to dive straight into the first question, Jessica. How many years did you rent before you purchased your own premises?
[00:02:40] Jessica Haydock: I was renting for seven years before I decided to purchase my own building.
[00:02:45] Tyson E Franklin: Okay, so seven years is a weird time frame. So what were the lease terms over that seven years?
[00:02:51] Jessica Haydock: Yeah, so I had a two year lease. I signed first and when that was coming up to renewal, they only gave me a five year [00:03:00] option. So,
[00:03:00] Tyson E Franklin: okay.
[00:03:01] So when you first went in then they asked just for two, or you wanted two years to test the waters. I did a similar thing in Mackay, just to see what would happen. When it came to renewing it, did they just say you have to take a five year lease? Correct. Yeah,
[00:03:14] Jessica Haydock: there was no negotiation with the landlords.
[00:03:16] Tyson E Franklin: Okay, so I take it you were in a shopping centre because they are ruthless.
[00:03:20] Jessica Haydock: Absolutely, spot on.
[00:03:23] Tyson E Franklin: Yeah, because I know most landlords are very flexible. They’ll give you a two year lease and sometimes a two by two or two by three and then a five if you want it. But I know shopping centres are just very strict.
[00:03:34] And
[00:03:35] Jessica Haydock: even getting the two year initially was a bit of hard work. They wanted to sign me up for a lot longer.
[00:03:41] Tyson E Franklin: Yeah, and those terms, especially within shopping centre are a lot more difficult to deal with than a landlord who, , say if it’s one or two owners that own a building, they’re a little bit more lenient with certain things.
[00:03:54] Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so why did you choose a shopping centrein the first [00:04:00] place?
[00:04:00] Jessica Haydock: I wanted some walk by traffic. Yeah. And it was also next to a doctor surgery. So I just thought that’s an easier relationship to build with the doctors while still being a separate tenancy. And it was quite a busy shopping center, so I could guarantee a lot of walk
[00:04:16] Tyson E Franklin: by traffic.
[00:04:17] Okay. Yeah. Well, we had, we had one clinic that was in a shopping centre as well. Same thing. We had a lot of walk past traffic, but what you paid was in comparison to what was outside the shopping center. It was a lot more for the space. Yeah, definitely. So how many square meters was it?
[00:04:31] Jessica Haydock: 75. So quite a small little place to start.
[00:04:35] Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. Which is a good size though, for your first business. Yeah. I
[00:04:38] Jessica Haydock: was able to fit in two treatment rooms. So that was more than enough when I was starting up on my own.
[00:04:43] Tyson E Franklin: Okay. So what prompted you to buy? Was there a, what was it one particular trigger that you went, that’s it I’m moving? Or was it What was always the plan that at some stage you wanted to have your own building?
[00:04:55] Jessica Haydock: It was always the long term plan but why I did it when I did [00:05:00] is I was sick of dealing with the landlords and centre management. They weren’t the best to deal with. And only having 75 square metres, there was no room for further business growth. So I was surrounded by occupied tenancies so their option was wait until a business closes down or.
[00:05:20] You have to stay with 75 square meters.
[00:05:23] Tyson E Franklin: From memory, were your repayments more, less or about the same when you bought your own place?
[00:05:30] Jessica Haydock: I am, I’m paying about a thousand dollars more a month for my own space. And I’ve gone from 75 square meters to about 200 square meters. It’s a
[00:05:39] Tyson E Franklin: huge difference.
[00:05:41] Yeah, absolutely. And you’ve gone from what, two consultation rooms to how many?
[00:05:45] Jessica Haydock: To five and an assessment room.
[00:05:48] Tyson E Franklin: So you’ve got a lot of room now to grow that you didn’t have beforehand. Absolutely. Yeah. And I remember talking to you when you had the business in the shopping center, and I’d say, oh, are you doing this?
[00:05:59] And you go, well, we [00:06:00] could if we had the room. Yeah. . Yeah. Can, that was my answer, . That was your answer for nearly everything. Absolutely. And I think a lot of people get in that position. They start a business somewhere. The business grows faster than they expected. And they just can’t grow beyond that.
[00:06:16] So I think it’s, it is one of those things. If the business is constantly growing at some stage, you just have to make the move to buy your own place.
[00:06:23] Jessica Haydock: Yeah. And it was scary to do that. You know, moving locations, upsetting patients, rebranding, all of the things that come with it. It’s a huge step, but one, it was the best decision we’ve ever
[00:06:34] Tyson E Franklin: made.
[00:06:35] Okay, which leads on to question number four. What are the benefits of owning your own premises? Other than being able to hug the walls in the morning when you get there.
[00:06:43] Jessica Haydock: Yes. Oh, goodness. Everything. I’m my own landlord now, so I can do whatever I want to this building. We chose a building that suited us for pretty much forever.
[00:06:55] future proofed for the business growth as well. We even chose one with a [00:07:00] warehouse that, , if I eventually want to have my own milling machine, I can put that in the warehouse at the back.
[00:07:05] Tyson E Franklin: You’re now going to get phone calls from everybody that owns milling machines. Well, we have a milling machine if you want one, but we’ll do you a deal, you’ve got the space.
[00:07:14] Jessica Haydock: Not yet. Not yet. I do things step by step. I really don’t see any disadvantages of having my own place.
[00:07:21] Tyson E Franklin: Okay. But you did mention it was a little bit scary to do that move. Were you concerned that like where you were, your patients got used to you being in one spot, that if you then moved, how far did you move from where you were initially renting?
[00:07:34] Jessica Haydock: We’re only four minutes away. But Toowoomba is a unique community where that might as well be 40 minutes.
[00:07:43] Tyson E Franklin: Why are they so unique? I have been to Toowoomba. Everyone looked pretty normal.
[00:07:50] Jessica Haydock: I love Toowoomba. But a lot of my, it was just, it was a four minutes closer into the CBD. So I was kind of on the outskirts of the [00:08:00] shopping center. So I, that was a little bit daunting to some patients, but it’s been absolutely fine.
[00:08:06] Tyson E Franklin: And I have seen your building and it is beautiful. Thank you.
[00:08:09] And I did post some photos. When you first opened up, I posted some photos on Facebook and a few people went, holy crap, that looks good. And I use it as an example, your website, I use it as an example. showing people different things. I said, have a look at this. And they’re like, Ooh, doesn’t that look good?
[00:08:25] Jessica Haydock: Thank you. Thank you. It is beautiful. I’m very proud.
[00:08:28] Tyson E Franklin: Yeah. So anyone listening to this, go and check out Soul Focus Podiatry in Toowoomba, go to the website. It’s a cool website and it’s also a beautiful building. So this leads me on to the fifth question. Do you have any Property purchasing tips.
[00:08:42] Jessica Haydock: Oh, my tips.
[00:08:44] The first one would be start looking minimum two years before you want it to happen. We had to jump through a lot of council red tape, , offers weren’t accepted on other buildings so always give yourself a lot more time than you [00:09:00] think Oh,
[00:09:01] Tyson E Franklin: can I just go back a step before you get the next part?
[00:09:04] You just said offers were rejected. So you looked at other places before purchasing that one? Oh, absolutely.
[00:09:10] Jessica Haydock: Yeah, we lost a couple of buildings. They got, yeah, they just didn’t accept our offer. They got a higher offer. We lost another couple of buildings because council wouldn’t let us turn it into a health facility in Toowoomba.
[00:09:22] The council’s strict on where you can have practices. Yeah. We couldn’t make the parking work on another couple of buildings. So it took us a long time to find this one.
[00:09:31] Tyson E Franklin: That’s interesting. And that’s why, I mean, you said start looking two years before you really want to do it. Don’t leave it till six months out, which I did.
[00:09:40] Before we purchased our building, we had a landlord and we were there for two terms. And when it came towards the second term,
[00:09:47] and I pretty much said to him six months out. We’re leaving.. We’re gone. Six months out of here. So I started to look for my own place. Could not find anything that was suitable. And then about two months before the lease [00:10:00] ended, I went back to the landlord and said, is there any chance we can just extend it for 12 months?
[00:10:03] So he gave us a 12 month extension and then we therefore had 14 months to try and find something. And it wasn’t just finding something. It was also getting it fitted out. That took time. Yep. Absolutely. So when you went into your building, the one that you bought, you didn’t just walk straight in.
[00:10:21] You had to fit it out a certain way. I did.
[00:10:24] Jessica Haydock: It was and a weird electrical company had it as their offices. Anyway, the space didn’t work. So yeah, we had to defit it back to its bare bones and build a whole new practice.
[00:10:38] Tyson E Franklin: Okay. So these are now random questions I’m asking.
[00:10:42] That’s
[00:10:42] Jessica Haydock: right. I’ll have to remember
[00:10:43] Tyson E Franklin: my tips though. Yeah. Oh no, finish your tips. Finish your tips. Then I’ll go on with this random question I was going to ask. Okay.
[00:10:49] Jessica Haydock: My tips would be pay the money and get a building designer to do it. Yeah. Big one. Like I did the layouts of how many treatment [00:11:00] rooms and how I wanted those to function.
[00:11:02] But she did the waiting room area, the colors, the design is just, well worth every cent. We get compliments on our fit out every single day. Parking a lot of our clients or some people’s clients are a bit older. So parking is a big thing for older patients. And the final tip would be put more treatment rooms in than you need.
[00:11:27] Oh, definitely. Yeah. If you’re buying it, you I’ll never move again. This is it for us. And so I’m only using three rooms at the moment, but I’ve got five. So it yeah, like I said, I’m future proofing.
[00:11:41] Tyson E Franklin: I don’t think it’s a good idea. The other tip that you said about having the designer, we did that on our last building.
[00:11:47] Even though prior to that, we’d rented say three or three other places and we’ve designed it ourselves. We had a proper builder come in and build it all, of course, but the [00:12:00] last time we actually got a designer to come in and designed it. And even though I still worked out the layout of the rooms and how I wanted things to function, they did, it’s just, that’s what they do.
[00:12:12] They’re experts in that area. They make something that is. Look okay, look fantastic. And I remember you saying off air, you can tell a podiatry clinic has been designed by a podiatrist. Should we keep that in or edit it out? I’m going to keep it in because that was a conversation we did have. But you can tell a podiatry clinic that has been solely designed by a podiatrist.
[00:12:36] Unless they’ve got this big artistic flair, which most don’t. You can just tell.
[00:12:43] Jessica Haydock: And I’m saying, I can honestly say my first practice was designed by me. I did it all myself. And you see the two and compare, you can pick the one that was designed by podiatrist.
[00:12:55] Tyson E Franklin: I’ve seen a lot of podiatry clinics. As soon as I walk in, I can tell which one’s been designed by [00:13:00] designer or had that little designer’s touch added to it.
[00:13:04] And one that has solely been done by podiatrists. And I told you a story where somebody recently had two photos up of their before and after. Yes, you did. Some renovations of the clinic and I had to show it to my wife. So can you tell me which is the before and after so I can’t tell the difference I really couldn’t tell it.
[00:13:21] Whereas if they had gone to design and said these are the changes we want to make that they just they’ve got an eye for what’s going to be appealing to once you describe what you want. And the patients that you see and your vision, they can actually make it happen. Absolutely.
[00:13:39] Jessica Haydock: And like we are the experts.
[00:13:41] We are in feet and a building designer is an expert in their field, so let them do their
[00:13:45] Tyson E Franklin: thing. No, I agree. And the parking. The parking is huge. Huge. I’ve been to places where it could be another allied health professional, new building, and I’ve gone to find a park and I cannot [00:14:00] find a park. And it is so frustrating.
[00:14:02]
[00:14:02] Jessica Haydock: We’ve got our own parking, street parking, and they still aren’t happy.
[00:14:07] Tyson E Franklin: Yeah, but I know myself when I’ve gone somewhere and I’ve, it’s been difficult getting a park. The next time I’m thinking about using a service, I’m going, Oh, that’s right. I’ve got to find a park. It sometimes puts me off.
[00:14:18] Jessica Haydock: Definitely. So that is a big one. That’s probably my number one tip. Yeah,
[00:14:22] Tyson E Franklin: definitely. Okay, Jessica, I want to thank you for coming here and sharing a little bit about the benefits of purchasing your premises. And I think by the time this episode is complete, there’ll be podiatrists out there who have got leases who are just going, that’s it.
[00:14:36] I’m going to go and buy my own place. That’s, and that’s the intention. The more podiatrists that can buy their own premises as a profession will become strong and rich. We’ll become like McDonald’s of podiatrists alone. The podiatry profession might be the third highest retail, was it? Third highest property owners in the world.
[00:14:54] Oh, maybe. Yeah, the profession. Yeah. Good one. Make every, make everybody else shake. [00:15:00] Okay, Jessica. Thanks a lot.
[00:15:02] Jessica Haydock: Thank you so much for having me. Okay.
[00:15:04] Tyson E Franklin: Bye. Bye.
[00:15:05] Okay, so with me now is a good friend of the podcast, been on multiple times. Everybody knows Jonathan Small from Health First Foot and Gait Clinic in Southam, Warwickshire. And Jonathan is here to give his two cents worth on the benefits of purchasing your premises. So good morning, Jonathan. Hello there and good evening from here.
[00:15:26] It is too. I keep forgetting that whenever I have someone from the UK, they’re almost ready to go to bed and I’m just getting started for the day. So let’s dive straight into this. The first question I want to ask is how many years did you rent before you decided to purchase your premises? So I had a business lease that lasted for about five years in total before I bought my premises.
[00:15:51] Okay, so you just did one term first. Yeah, it wasn’t even an official lease like that, to be fair. It was it was more of [00:16:00] a casual arrangement. You know, I just paid the monthly rent. I don’t recall. I mean, we’re going back a long time now, so my memory doesn’t hold out.
[00:16:08] I don’t remember. The reason I don’t remember being tied in too much into the contract is because they, Got me out really quickly when they wanted to take back the premises. I didn’t have a lot of notice period, so I think it was quite a loose contract. All right, so you were like on a month by month basis, and then eventually maybe there was three months notice, so I got or something like that, yeah.
[00:16:28] . Yeah. So you didn’t decide to go and lease somewhere else right there. And then you said, I’m going to buy. No, I’d come to the end of a relationship and uh, and I left the left the property and decided that I’d buy somewhere for myself initially to live in, but always with a view to converting it to a clinic.
[00:16:47] It was only going to be a temporary accommodation for me once I found my feet again. And and the, uh, long term goal was to convert it to a clinic. And that was back in 1998 I bought the property. [00:17:00] Okay. And that’s where you are now too, isn’t it? Yeah, still there. Same place. Okay. Yep. So that answers my second question.
[00:17:07] What prompted you to buy and was there a trigger? Yes, you were pushed. Yeah, absolutely. And it just made sense for me from a residential security point of view. But also when I was looking at the type of property, I was looking to see what would for the business as well. So this leads on to question number three then.
[00:17:25] From memory, were your payments more or less or about the same as what you were paying in rent at the time? Yeah, no, it would have gone up. It would have been more because I was buying the property. Uh, I was on a much bigger property as well because it was a house to, uh, to reside in. So, so I was only renting a room basically that we split down the middle and put a little reception area in, but it was a small square footage.
[00:17:49] Whereas if when we went into the buying the residential property, that was, uh, that did increase, but then you got the advantage you’re investing in property. Yeah. And that seems to be, I’ve spoken to a few [00:18:00] people. That’s a common thing that when they move one, it’s a lot bigger than where they originally were, but even though they’re paying more for the extra space, it gives them that chance to grow.
[00:18:11] Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Indeed. Yeah, so no one seems to just move from where they were to buying something that’s the same size It’s always seems to be bigger. Yeah. Yeah, and it gave me options then And I explored some options and really fairly quickly realized that it wasn’t it didn’t suit me some of the options I was exploring I’ve got it in my head about having a private medical center with lots of Different rooms being used because obviously residential property there were rooms available And uh, and within a few short years, I realized that wasn’t where I wanted to go with it.
[00:18:46] So we actually, uh, converted the property into a residential upstairs and then the clinic downstairs. Okay, and like I know now that you lived a fair distance from that clinic, so you used [00:19:00] to drive there, work there so many days, and you stayed, you still stayed in that residence upstairs, didn’t you?
[00:19:05] Yes, so, so, I’ve had various periods in my life of living either in that flat above clinic or Nearby or further afield. And now of course I’m quite a long way away from there. , and it works, right. It’s a very flexible property. Uh, I’m really pleased that I did invest in it way back then.
[00:19:22] And of course, the property value has gone up since then. So, uh, so it’s an asset. Yeah, and that’s what leads on the question before. What are the biggest benefits of owning your own premises? And that was one thing you just mentioned then. Once you own it, repayments might be a little bit more, you’ve got bigger space, but long term the property value is always going to go up.
[00:19:42] Have you found any other benefits? Yeah, absolutely. Security. You know, I’ve not had to worry about, uh, losing the premises, basically. Uh, I can do whatever I wanted with it. I didn’t have to, uh, go and get landlord’s permission. I could develop it in whatever direction I wanted to. [00:20:00] So when I clicked that, actually, I didn’t want the whole premises to be this private health center, and I just wanted it to be a foot clinic downstairs.
[00:20:07] Then we just had a small extension put in a separate entrance to, uh, to create a buy to let flat upstairs that I rented out for many years. I think about 10, 15 years it was rented out for before I started making use of it again. Okay. Final question. Do you have any property purchasing tips?
[00:20:25] Anyone that’s listening to this, do you have any advice for them if they’re thinking about getting their own premises? or any tips about what to look for? Yeah, I think something I’ve always advocated in life is to really push yourself beyond that comfort zone, because you will find a way of making it work when you put yourself under pressure.
[00:20:45] So whilst it might seem more expensive and may make you struggle. Uh, initially it’ll just kick you into gear to do something to make sure you can afford it. So that you don’t lose it. So, so yeah, I think that don’t play it safe. Take the risk. We’re only on this [00:21:00] uh, planet for one life.
[00:21:01] Take that bit of an extra risk and push yourself. Uh, cause you’d be amazed at what you’re capable of to overcome any obstacles like financial ones. Yeah. So I take it you have no regrets whatsoever about purchasing your own premises? None whatsoever. None at all. That is fantastic. That’s all been positive so far.
[00:21:18] So Jonathan, I want to thank you for coming on and talking about the benefits of purchasing your premises. And, uh, I’m sure we will talk again very soon. Thanks. Thanks for having me, mate. Okay. Bye. Bye.
[00:21:30] Tyson E Franklin: So I thought now would be a perfect time to dive in and remind everybody that the next two day Podiatry Business Reboot is going to be in Cairns, Queensland on the 26th and 27th of July, 2024. It will be an amazing two days. It will blow your mind and tell you right now, you all walk away from this with a smile from ear to ear, realising how many things that you will take away, apply to your business straight away and will make you a better business owner, a better [00:22:00] practitioner, a better employer. You’ll just overall have so many positive impacts on your business. To learn more, go to my website, tysonfranklin.com, click on events, all the information is there, have a read through what it is that we’ll be covering. So far, 90 podiatrists have run through this program. and , nobody has said it did not live up to the expectations and I offer everybody double their money back if they did not feel that they got value from this particular program to date, nobody has asked for the money back because I know how much value they get from the two days. So, like I said, go to my website tysonfranklin.com or you can go to podiatrylegends.com, both websites, click events, it will take you to all the information about the two day Podiatry Business Reboot, and if you’re sitting on the fence at the moment, just do it. Waiting another 12 months is going to cost you so much money. If you have any questions about the reboot, please send me an email [00:23:00] tf@tysonfranklin.com. I’m here to answer any questions that you have. So, let’s get back on with these interviews and hope to see a few of you in Cairns on the 26th and 27th of July.
[00:23:11] I am now joined by Elan Silver from Silver Podiatry all the way over in Perth, which is about five and a half hours away from Cairns in case anyone is thinking about flying from one place to the other. So Elon, how are you doing? Good morning, Tyson, and good morning listeners. So let’s dive straight into this.
[00:23:28] We’re talking about the benefits of purchasing your own premises, and I’m going to dive straight into the first question. And that was, how many years did you rent? before purchasing your premises. I lasted one year in a small office building of the main road here in Perth, Beaufort Street. And it was a little bit awkward there.
[00:23:49] The landlord was occupying the office next to mine. So it made life a little bit awkward. When anything went wrong in this place, it was my fault. Of course. And I knew it was, yeah, I knew it [00:24:00] was time to I was accused of not locking the front door one day. And it was a day I wasn’t actually working in that office.
[00:24:06] So, then I moved into a larger office on the main strip, going from about 50 square meters to a hundred. And I got to fit the office out. I created two full size treatment rooms, a small office, kitchenette, little gym room. And it’s amazing how your stuff just expands to fill that extra space. Always does.
[00:24:27] But I was lucky not making good use of that space. I had a physiotherapist looking for a room to rent, so he came to join me. And that started a very good relationship, which has gone on for more than 10 years now. But I knew it was I lost, I think, five years and then an additional three, because then I had the landlord turn around to me there and say, because I was very successful, he was going to increase my rent significantly.
[00:24:53] Yes he didn’t quite have the Aussie spirit in him, but yes, I just got to a stage where having to [00:25:00] deal with landlords was becoming a problem. So. . How big is the place that you ended up buying? It was the place that we bought was an old house that was probably maybe 120 square metres, but I never moved into it, I actually knocked it down.
[00:25:14] And we rebuilt it and there was a big decision as to whether to go single storey or double storey and from a legacy point of view we went double storey. So we went from, oh, about 100 square metres in my old office to 350 odd. Oh, nice. In a new one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nice increase. So, well this leads on to the second question, and you sort of answered it as well, but what prompted you to buy?
[00:25:36] What, was there a particular trigger other than the landlord was just hiking your rents up, like there was no tomorrow? Yeah, I don’t play nicely, and I don’t share nicely either. But a office came up for sale, which is very rare in this area. And, I went to the auction and apparently gave the death stare to all the other bidders there.
[00:25:57] And I landed up buying the offers. [00:26:00] And people who don’t know you and haven’t seen you on video, they don’t realise you’re 6 foot 7. Oh, Sandy Blondie. 250 pounds and you’re intimidating as all hell. I am the Aussie version of Jack Reacher. Yeah. Yeah. People who do know you will be laughing now. So anyway, continue with your story. Okay. It took three years to rebuild the office. Had very little to do with my landlord at the time, but if I were to give anyone advice, if anyone decides to raise your rent to that sort of extreme, go and use your due diligence, go and have a look at the price per square meter of other equivalent properties, because that made my landlord back down because I figured for that three year period.
[00:26:38] period. It was in my interest to actually move out of that office considering the increase. So he backed down. So, but you said you initially had a five year lease, then you signed for three more years. Is that because you knew the building was going to take three years to build? Yes. Oh, okay. So you had planned it.
[00:26:54] It was going to take that long. Yeah. Yeah. It, it was, I had to harass the [00:27:00] builder because yeah, there were consequences for me not to move out after three years. And that’s a lot of planning that has to take place to make sure that that actually happens. Well, that was the idea is that even if I didn’t move into the new office immediately, what’s the worst that happens?
[00:27:19] You’ll end up paying one set of rent and one set of interest rates. I also had the option of trying to find another tenant to move into the office, the one that I was renting. So that, that worked out okay. Bit stressful, but in the end it actually was fine. Yeah, I remember having a lease in one particular place and we wanted to get out and move somewhere else.
[00:27:40] And we had the, so we approached them and said, Oh, if we find another tenant, would that be fine? And they just went, no, look at your lease. If you don’t stay there, you’ve got to pay out the lease. and you can’t bring somebody else in. Yeah. That, that just defies belief, especially in this market.
[00:27:57] I’m sure most landlords would be quite [00:28:00] happy for their tenant to do the hard work to get a new tenant in for them upon their approval. Yeah. Well, the problem was it was inside a shopping center and shopping centers are ruthless. . Which is, that’s actually a really good point with respect to this discussion is that to me, renting or being an owner that’s part of a strata is the same. Yeah. You still have to deal with people.
[00:28:25] So I’ve got a standalone building and I don’t have to worry about that sort of interaction. It’s just far less stress on me. Yeah. And that’s one part where we’ve got the building in Cairns, there’s three parts to it. We own two of the three. So it’s sort of, it’s a loose strata title arrangement. And when you vote on anything, it has to be majority rules.
[00:28:46] Yeah. Yeah. But we try to get on with them as well as what we can and just get things done because it’s in everyone’s best interest that the building always looks good. Yep, exactly. And you can’t be a dictator without being a dick. [00:29:00] Hey, I’m keeping that in there.
[00:29:01] That’s not moving. That’s not going anywhere. So, third question. From memory, were your repayments more or less than your rental? Or were they about the same? I’m assuming it was more. It was about four times more. You built the Taj Mahal, that’s why. Yeah, it was, it was big. But it was always going to be an investment in our future, part of our legacy.
[00:29:21] There are 4 tenancies in the office now, 2 upstairs and 2 down, and we’ve got 3 treatment rooms on our side, we’ve got a clean room, a workshop area, physiotherapists moved with us, and I always knew to work within my financial limits. And I established that I could afford the principal and interest repayments without any rental income.
[00:29:41] Yeah, that’s great. Hey, with the physio that moved in with you, since you have one on site, which I think is a good thing, do you get referrals from other physios or they don’t refer anybody to you? I’m, because he runs his own business, I don’t actually say that he’s part of the Silver Podiatry paradigm.
[00:29:57] So we do [00:30:00] get a smattering of, um, physio referrals, but we don’t get much in the way of allied health referrals. They’re very territorial around this area. And the physio doesn’t work for you, they just rent space from you. That’s right. But we are very symbiotic. I’m more than happy to refer on to him.
[00:30:18] And especially the C& D clientele. Yeah. Because he’s he’s nice, sweet, softy. And you’re a, that’s right. And you’re a six foot seven badass. Absolutely. This leads on to number four. What are the biggest benefits of owning your own premises? Oh, being able to run your own business under your own roof on your own land is the ultimate business freedom.
[00:30:44] When you live under a landlord, your future is a little bit uncertain. You just don’t know when they’re going to pull that plug out. There are so many clauses in those sorts of contracts. I mean, we had a demolition clause with ours and you just never knew when they were going to say, we’ve got three months to get out.[00:31:00]
[00:31:00] And in this area with so few rentals of properties up for lease or sale. You’d have, you’d likely have to move an entire suburb and that would have a huge impact. So when you’ve got your own place, you get to design your own layout. If you want to knock a wall down, if you want to repaint stuff, you can do whatever you like.
[00:31:20] You’ve got your stability in terms of location. You’ve got your permanent base. No changes in lease agreements, the property itself, the equity can build over time. So it’s a great asset. And while the initial costs may be higher, you have the ability to sublet, to rent you can generate that rental income, it’s an, you get the tax benefits.
[00:31:42] Oh, definitely. You got the, the capital gains, you get to control your own maintenance and repairs. So at the end of the day, if something breaks, it’s your own fault, you have to deal with it. You don’t have to wait for a landlord to organize things for you. And you get to brand it, you get to market it.
[00:31:57] It’s your own brick and mortar, and I will [00:32:00] admit every now and then I do go pat the wall and say, you’re mine. You actually said that when I was thinking about doing this episode and I said, I’m thinking about producing this particular episode. Anybody interested? And that was one of the comments you actually said to me.
[00:32:11] Yeah, I want to come on because I love hugging my walls. Yeah. Yeah, I do. And it is, I, I must admit, when we bought our building, but when it finally went through it, and it was ours, and even when we’re doing the whole fit out, you walk around and you’re going, this is mine. Well, sort of the banks at the moment, but they’re letting me use it.
[00:32:29] Mm-Hmm. . And, but then once you, you start paying it off and then you own more of it than the bank does, and it just keeps going from there. It does, it just, it gives you a bit of pride too, that you’re actually, it does. Your money is going somewhere. Yeah, it is just, it’s calming. It really is. And like we said too, about how landlords, they can do whatever they want.
[00:32:53] So if they want to demolish your building, they can, they’re just going to give you the correct amount of notice and you’re out of there. And also it depends [00:33:00] on what the economy is like at the time as well. Like in Cairns at the moment, there’s a lot of places vacant, so you can get a good deal if you’re renting.
[00:33:08] Well, it didn’t seem that long ago before COVID that trying to find a place is, was really, really hard. So your landlord sort of had you by the short and curlies. Very much so, but that also works the other way is that at the end of the day, when you buy your own property, you need to really, really be careful when you end up owning your own property, is that you really need to be careful with where you actually buy so that you can withstand those fluctuations in the market.
[00:33:38] Yeah, that’s a good point. This leads on to the final question. Do you have any property purchasing tips be ready? Oh, you’re looking to purchase Keep in mind how the bank’s going to look at you So for me, it was really difficult to get a loan being a sole practitioner and having a wife of childbearing age Very politically incorrect to say but the bank [00:34:00] will actually think it at the time if you’re with a partner.
[00:34:02] So have the funds set aside so that you can purchase when the right property comes up. And the other bit of advice I’d give is get in touch with local agents in the area that you’re looking at buying because often a lot of sales take place privately. You’ll never see them advertised. So I’m sure the agents will be more than happy to canvas on your behalf.
[00:34:23] You see that all the time. You’ll see where all of a sudden somebody owns another building and you go, Yeah. And then when you, you might know that person, go, how’d you purchase that? Yeah, they know the real estate agents in the area and they put the word out there way ahead of time. And this is something I always tell my coaching clients. If you’re thinking about moving or you think of purchasing your own property, start at least two years before you want to actually do it.
[00:34:45] Cause it can take that long to get it all sorted. I’m talking of that. The other thing I’d highly recommend is if you own your own house, try not to use that as equity. Try and keep them separate so that if one goes belly up, it [00:35:00] does not affect the other.
[00:35:01] If something does happen, say you’re buying a place or building a place, you need to take a step back a little bit and go you know, is someone else
[00:35:10] potentially going to buy this place. So you’re looking at that future as well. If you’re just going to buy or build something that is specific to your profession, you’re going to limit the potential market for sale later on. That’s a really good point yeah, so like the back end of my office is actually partitioning that we’ve put up so you can actually change the floor plan later. Okay. So have you got any other final tips before we wrap up?
[00:35:33] There’s there’s one business coach that I know who I’ll paraphrase always says parking space is just as important as location. Oh, I know that guy. Yeah, so do I. And let me tell you there was a massive development near my office that chewed up a lot of the parking spaces, which has caused us some problems, which is why I now cycle to work so that my patients can use my parking bay.
[00:35:57] Oh, so when you bought the premises, there was a lot of parking in the [00:36:00] area, but then it was redeveloped and you lost the parking. Yes, that is right. Ah, okay, so off, off street parking is always a benefit. Absolutely, there’s plenty of off street parking, but the patient expectations have changed since that development went through.
[00:36:15] So there’s a little bit less parking than we would like. And yeah, once you own your own place, you’re in it for the long run. And, , so I think my, my end thought would be, if you’re thinking of getting out of the, the rental trap in commercial property, and you’re looking at moving into your own place, use your due diligence, go do your homework, do your research, find out what the banks are doing at the moment.
[00:36:43] Always do things within your own means, and should it work out, you will never regret it. You’re going to love having your own roof over your head. Yeah, and I think sometimes, like on that point, sometimes we think we can’t afford it, but once you talk to the banks and then you look at the [00:37:00] repayments, and you look at the money that you’re making, you realise that you can afford it.
[00:37:04] So, and I just think start, like we said before, start looking earlier than you thought, because you can always say no, you can always just stay where you are. All the money you pay into your principal and interest, you’ll eventually get back at some stage in the future. I have a side question that I haven’t asked anyone on this before.
[00:37:20] But with your thinking, if somebody was younger, they’re a young podiatrist, they’re going along, they’ve got their own business, they’re renting somewhere, things are going great. Do you reckon buy your house first or buy your business first? Premises. Oh, now that is such a loaded question. Isn’t it? That is actually something that I did think about quite a lot at the time is that, I mean, if you invest in your business, then, and that goes well, if you do the right thing there, then buying your house will be so much easier and better, but if something happens with business, whether it’s the economy yeah then that can make purchasing your house a little bit more difficult. But if you buy your house first, [00:38:00] then you’ve got your family looked after. So it is a really difficult one to, to make that decision. That that’s your personal choice.
[00:38:09] I think what your priorities are, the business can afford you a nicer house, but a house and a home is probably going to be more important than your business in the long run. Yeah, what was really interesting is what we bought our house first, and but I remember reading something many years ago and they said the Australian dream, own your own home, then your business and property comes afterwards.
[00:38:34] And I’m not sure if this is true, but in America, it’s turned around the other way. It’s the business and property first, and then it’s their own home. So if there’s any Americans listening to this, please let me know if I’ve just told a myth. Hmm, that would be very interesting. . No, I mean, basically, my purchase history was that I bought a small house. and paid it off, then we bought an investment property, another house, and we were going to redevelop that, [00:39:00] but that didn’t fall through, so we sold it. Halfway through that, we bought this property, and then rebuilt it, and then went and bought our forever home.
[00:39:11] Yeah. Which I hope you come to visit one day, because we’re on the, we kind of overlook a park, which is on the Swan River, and if not for the way we did things I don’t know where we would be right now. So we’re in an absolutely awesome house on a huge block of land. And because of what the business has done, not necessarily the fact that I’ve bought and built this property that I’m in, just the way we’ve, we’ve saved. Yeah, I think I think that’s a huge point there. It’s really being being frugal with your money when you’re younger and not especially when you when you got your business going and everything’s going great.
[00:39:49] is be prepared that not every year may always be a great year. You don’t know what’s going to happen. There could be a virus. Who would have thought? And, and, and I know some businesses that really struggled [00:40:00] through that. And I know other ones who just cruised through it because they had great cash reserves.
[00:40:03] They had planned for the future and everything. And also know that most podiatrists know that own their own home. then have bought their own premises, usually then invest in other property through their career as well. I think so. So, okay, Elan, I want to thank you for coming on here, sharing your wisdom about your property purchases, and I hope anyone listening to this has taken something away from this.
[00:40:27] So thank you very much. My pleasure. Thanks, Tyson.
[00:40:30] Okay. With me now, I have Chloe Wear from the Woodvale Podiatrist in Perth. So Chloe, how are you doing this morning? Really good. Excited to be back on the podcast again. It’s been a couple of years now. It has been a while. That’s right. You did the episode about warts and swift machine. Yes. Yeah. Which is still going strong.
[00:40:50] It is. I was looking at it only the other day and it’s up around a thousand downloads. So yeah, that was a really popular episode. So thank you for coming on here to [00:41:00] share your thoughts on the benefits of purchasing your premises. So I’m going to dive straight into the first question, which is how many years did you rent before purchasing your premises?
[00:41:11] Three years in total, I started off in a medical center and did six months in there and then moved across the road, literally a few steps away to a physio practice and was two and a half years with them. Okay, was it did you have a short term lease at the medical center, then a lease with the physio, or was it just a month by month as you went along?
[00:41:33] Good question. I can’t remember with the medical, I think actually maybe I had six months initially with a view to longer. But it, we just didn’t really work from a like we had a good working relationship, but their business ideas and my business ideas didn’t match up. So they’re opening hours. Didn’t fit with what I wanted to do.
[00:41:54] They were really pushing me to fill a Saturday morning I think to justify paying admin on a [00:42:00] Saturday. Yeah. And I wanted more late nights. And I think as time went on, it became evident that their priorities were getting more GPS in the building. So I, we, I left on good terms, went across the roads.
[00:42:13] This physio practice had opened up and it’s where there used to be another physio and a podiatrist previously. So, by having a podiatrist, it’s a good spot to be. And then new physios had come in, were a new business similar to me. I, we just set up and we sort of had similar ideas and it just worked well.
[00:42:31] Their opening hours worked. It was a good location. So we worked well for a couple of years. They yeah, just hit a point where there wasn’t enough space, I think is the reason why we then changed that. So with the physios, I, again, I don’t know if I had a set contract or not. They were fairly flexible in terms of what we had there.
[00:42:52] Okay, well that leads on the second question then. What prompted you to buy, or was there one thing that happened or a circumstance that made you [00:43:00] go, okay, now it’s time to go and buy our own place?
[00:43:02] Yeah, so , I guess there was a trigger. Probably I wasn’t quite at the right time to think about buying. It was something my accountant had always said. That’s the end goal is to own premises eventually, which is like side note, but I’d highly recommend having a good accountant. I think initially I thought, Oh, it’s a lot of money to invest in someone when I’m only working two days a week.
[00:43:26] But the decisions he’s helped me made have definitely. Been for the best. That’s good advice. Yeah. And it, you know, I see frequently on Facebook groups people saying, oh, I’m spending a lot on this, but you the things he’s done and just made our life easier.
[00:43:42] It’s really worth the money
[00:43:44] but, so that was always the end goal. Like I said, I wasn’t quite at the point where I thought I was ready to move on, but the physios came to me and said, look, I was renting one of their, I think they had four rooms in the premises.
[00:43:57] Plus they had a gym area and reception [00:44:00] and they were growing as well. We’d grown and I think just the demand on their reception as my business was getting bigger, it became finding, , it was impacting more on, on their admin. And that was great. Great for me in the first instance that I had that support because having young kids at the time, I knew that I didn’t have to answer phone calls when I wasn’t in work, it was really worked to my advantage that I had their admin, but we hit a point where, , probably after doing the reboot with you, it was, well, now I want to implement, recalls and this and that, and I was doing it all because their reception were like, , that’s not our job.
[00:44:37] They were focused on their business, understandably so. And they came to me and said, look, we’re at a point where we’re going to need that room back. So that pushed me into, let’s go look for what’s out there. So the plan was to try and rent somewhere else. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot around.
[00:44:52] I looked at a couple of different premises. I knew that I wanted to stay in the same suburb purely because there’s nobody else in this suburb. [00:45:00] And it’s a really good suburb in terms of people like to support local. There’s a good community feel. We’ve got good connections with the schools. So that was one of the factors in looking for somewhere.
[00:45:11] And I looked at a couple and I was like they’re not, one wasn’t big enough. Another one was in a different shopping center, but was owned by a big company. And I spoke to the small business owners and they gave me the impression it wasn’t the best place to be from a landlord perspective. And the place we ended up buying was actually up for lease initially.
[00:45:32] And I discounted it because. I had heard they’d had issues, the previous tenants had issues with the landlords. So it was somewhere I didn’t want to go in leasing it. Funnily enough, I ended up buying the place where the medical center was. They’d since shut down. So after not managing to get enough GPs and various other issues, they’d moved on and the place had been vacant for quite a few, I wouldn’t possibly even over a year.[00:46:00]
[00:46:00] So you did a full circle. Started there, left there and then came back there because their plan didn’t happen. That’s good. Didn’t work out. So I went from having this, , room at the back of the clinic that I rented from them and suddenly I had the whole building to myself. So that was a bit strange.
[00:46:13] But we managed to track down cause the agent was very firm on, Oh no, it’s just for lease. He’s not interested in selling, but through some contacts again, potentially through The accountant and then a finance lady that he put me onto, she had a contact in the real estate world and we managed to track down the owner and approached him direct.
[00:46:35] And he was like, Oh, I’d be happy to get rid of it. That’s a really good point because I know a lot of podiatrists are looking for buildings you never know, everything’s for sale at the right price.
[00:46:44] Exactly. And that’s, he actually turned around and said, I never wanted to buy it. He’d done his dad a favor by helping out the previous owner who needed to move out quickly, which was a whole nother story. But he just said, I never really wanted it. [00:47:00] And it’s, , become more of a headache than anything.
[00:47:02] So he was keen to do it. Oh, the only downside of that was because we went to him, he then was very firm on the price. So we probably paid a bit more than it was worth at the time. However, chatting, it was actually one of the physios that I work with. And he said to me, , yes, it might be a bit more, but if you think of long term, it’s probably worth it.
[00:47:20] If you miss out on that, and then you’ve got to find someone somewhere else, , it’s probably worth that little bit. How many years have you been there now , it will be 3 years this May. Yep. So yes, it’s so it’s been going for a while. So that was soon after starting the reboot that you had done that? Yes. Or around exactly the same time?
[00:47:41] We moved in 2021. So I think, did we do the reboot 2020 I think? 2020, yeah. Yep. So yeah, the next, by November. You were in group number one, you were in the first group. Yes, I was. Way back. Yes, a long time ago. So November 2020 was when the physios said, look, we want our room back. And they were actually really good.
[00:47:59] [00:48:00] They said, we’ll give you six months to find somewhere else. If you find somewhere sooner, we’re flexible. And they, I ended up needing, you know, a couple of extra months, just waiting for it to go through, but that was it. Well, you’ve almost answered question three, which would be from memory, were your repayments more or less than what you were paying in rent?
[00:48:16] I assume it was more. We’re going to cover some of the topics at today’s podcast. We’re going to cover some of the topics at today’s podcast. In the meantime, we want to for tuning in and for your participation, and we’ll see you next time. Take care. Economical, really, cause we were there more hours compared to when I started doing two days a week, it kind of went, yeah this works out.
[00:48:46] Okay. But on a full time basis, obviously it included reception. But yeah, moving over, I was looking at figures before we probably were paying a little bit less in rent, but then I had obviously admin [00:49:00] wages to pay. So overall it was more, but we suddenly had a building that had. Potentially for treatment rooms.
[00:49:07] You know, it was bigger than what we needed at that time, but again, I didn’t want to have to move constantly all the added costs of that. So I just went good future growth. One property we looked at, it was fine for then, but I was like, we’re going to outgrow this within potentially a year. So that, that got discarded.
[00:49:23] So initially it was slightly more expensive. But we were able to offer more as well. So really it wasn’t a big concern. Interestingly, since then obviously interest rates have rose quite a lot. So that’s then impacted how much rent we’re paying. But we’ve grown as a business as well. So yes, we’re paying a lot more than I did back then, but we’re a completely different business as well.
[00:49:46] And I think it gave me the push to, To grow and go like, I always had plans to do that, but it really just pushed me to go, right. This is the time to, to act on this. Well, like you said, there was a lot more room there than what you [00:50:00] needed initially. So I take it you’ve grown into all that extra space as well.
[00:50:05] So yeah, it’s perfect. I mean, because it was a medical center it was perfectly set up and there’s things that’s probably the one downside. I know some practitioners have obviously built their own clinics and got to design it exactly how they like. And I do stand there and go, funny, we could change this or that.
[00:50:25] But generally, yes, it like, it works really well. And we we have grown and filled. The space. So that, yeah, obviously in the past year or two, it’s been difficult. There’s not been a lot of podiatrists around. So we’ve gone from, you know, we started with two of us in there. We grew to four of us and we dropped back to two of us.
[00:50:44] But now we’ve got five practitioners. And I had initially my thoughts were I would rent out rooms to say massage or , another allied health practitioner. But I’m quite glad in a way that I haven’t had to do that. , . So , I’m going to go straight [00:51:00] to the last question because you pretty much answered number four.
[00:51:02] What are the biggest benefits for owning your own premises? about being able to expand and those aspects. So I’m going to move to number five. Yep. Do you have any property purchasing tips? If anybody’s out there listening, they’re thinking about doing it. Do you have any advice for them? Probably the number one thing would be just take the leap and it should all work out.
[00:51:24] It’s a big step. And obviously it’s dawn in taking on a loan on premises. But that would be. My number one advice, I think if you’ve got a fairly solid business, you’ll be able to make it work. And you’ve got that stability and control. I think from a, actually purchasing the premises location is key.
[00:51:43] Really thinking about what your business needs, the accessibility of it, parking and the ability to have good signage and advertising. I now drive around and I look at other clinics and I find, , a mixture of patient feedback. We’ve had patients come to [00:52:00] us because other podiatrists nearby, like one of them moved and they’re now upstairs in a building.
[00:52:05] And although there’s a lift for some patients, it just doesn’t work. Their parking isn’t amazing. There’s the Lyft, and just those factors all seem to add on to them. The signage one is an interesting one, because I’ve always had fairly visible signage. We still get people now say, Oh, I didn’t know there was a podiatrist here, and we’re within the shopping center that, , a lot of people know, but I think it’s very much people do the same thing over and over.
[00:52:31] So if they come into that shopping center from a certain direction, we’re on the sort of outside of it, they might just never come past where we are.
[00:52:40] And likewise, with the physios where we were on the opposite side of the road, we had roadside signage, great big signs. And the physio actually said to me one day, a patient who worked in marketing and said to him, you guys should really take advantage of the space outside and have some signs out there.
[00:52:56] And the physio was like, what do you mean? We do have signs. And this guy [00:53:00] drove in and hadn’t seen that there was big signs already on the road. So if you’re only looking at certain things, you don’t notice that. But I think if you, if your practice doesn’t have the ability to have some good signs, you’re going to really struggle.
[00:53:16] . And the reason I said parking’s important, obviously one mobility for some of our patients, but also the car park where we are has been in quite bad condition until the past month. It’s just all been resurfaced and the lines remarked the amount of people who complained about the lack of line marking was.
[00:53:35] quite significant. So I think to, to a patient, parking is a big thing. I went to my daughter had an appointment with the orthodontist last week. First time we’ve been, and I pulled into this car park. There were standalone building and there was parking there, but it was really tight to get into.
[00:53:54] There wasn’t many spaces. It was a busy clinic. And instantly I was like, Ooh, I’m a bit put off because it’s not that [00:54:00] easy. Like it’s great. Well, it does, you know, it wouldn’t stop me going there, but it made me think, Oh, I need to now allow for time to get parked. If we come back here again, cause it’s.
[00:54:11] Oh, well, I think the aspect of parking too, the big part of it is there’s been certain businesses that. If I, if they’re the only business that provides that service and I need it, I have no choice than I have to go there. And that’s where specialists have an advantage and why they all set up in really shitty parking spots.
[00:54:27] It’s just, it’s what they do all around the world. I’m a specialist. I’m going to make it really difficult for you because you need me. But I think the other part too, with a location, if you can’t get on a main road or somewhere that’s really prominent, being near something that’s a really prominent landmark is really important. Cause you can say, Oh, we’re opposite like the IGA shopping center or Bow Repairs, a tire place.
[00:54:52] If you can mention a landmark, like, Oh, I know exactly where that is. Are you at Crossroad? Easy to find. Yes. Yeah, definitely. I [00:55:00] agree with that. Okay. Chloe, this has been fun catching up with you again, and I want to thank you for coming here, sharing your wisdom around the benefits of posting your premises.
[00:55:10] So thank you very much. No worries. Thank you.
[00:55:13] Tyson E Franklin: Well, I be enjoyed this episode and, uh, want to thank again, uh, my guest, Jessica, Jonathan. Elan and Chleo coming on and sharing their experiences, going through that property purchasing process, which I have done myself and I’ve spoken to a lot of other podiatrists that have purchased their own properties.
[00:55:31] So I just want to go over a few takeaways. That I took from my guests and, or a few things that I noticed that I think are worth repeating again. And. The first thing that surprised me is most of my guests decided to purchase their premises within that first three to seven years. Of actually working for themselves, whereas I myself.
[00:55:52] Oh, why did it a lot longer? But I think times may be a little bit different. And I think if you’re sitting on the sideline wondering should or shouldn’t you. [00:56:00] Purchase your own property. Hopefully this episode has given you a little bit of encouragement and push to maybe investigate a little bit further.
[00:56:07] The second takeaway was start looking for your property a lot earlier than you may think you’ll need it. Most of my guests and myself included took a few years to actually find the right right place. And when you do find the right place. Then you’ve got all out for that fit out and depending what’s happening right now with the economy and the, and the whole building industry , sometimes that can take. A little bit of time.
[00:56:31] I know with my own clinics, sometimes we were able to get a shop fitter straight away. And other times we had to wait a little bit longer than expected .
[00:56:40] And the third thing is one of the things that Chloe said, that when you’re looking for something, if there’s a place for lease. Don’t be afraid to approach the owners about potentially buying that premises because you don’t know. What’s going on in their life and are they willing to sell?
[00:56:54] . Uh, number four was get a designer involved to get the most out of your space. [00:57:00] We are not designers.
[00:57:00] We are podiatrists. And I think you’ve got to go with your skillset. Maybe in your first practice, if it’s quite small, you might do it yourself. But. When you’re looking at something that you’re buying the building and you’re going to be fitting it out. I do agree that getting a design to getting professionals to come in and trying to get the maximum use out of the space that you have.
[00:57:21] And I number five was car parking. Is just like a number one priority. Your location is very important, but you need to make sure you’ve got good car parking. Number six, they all bought much larger premises then where they were initially. But they did that because they knew that the business was going to grow and they were looking at the longterm.
[00:57:43] So you might be looking at. At a building now, but think about will their building survey five, 10 years. Now you can always move. You can always buy another building. So there’s no problem with having multiple, , property purchases over your career, but just be aware. Don’t buy some.
[00:57:58] It’s going to seat you right now. Think [00:58:00] about your growth and your future, because it’ll tell you right now, once you move. And you actually own the building. For some reason once you have that property ownership with your business. Things just improve. So number seven. Was, it can sometimes be a little bit scary, but don’t be afraid to take, take a risk, take that leap of faith. Because. If your business is going well. You’ve got a good business foundation.
[00:58:25] You’ve got good cashflow coming through. There’s nothing really to be afraid of. So take that leap of faith. And this is why this leads onto that eighth takeaway that I wanted to share was talk to your bank or finance company sooner, rather than later, don’t keep putting it off.
[00:58:40] So go and talk to your bank. If your business has been around for a while, that you’ve got a solid foundation, you’ve got good profits coming through, going to the bank. The worst thing they can say is no, you don’t qualify yet, but they might tell you what you need to do. To be able to qualify in the future.
[00:58:56] And the ninth takeaway for me that I wanted to share from this [00:59:00] is all my guests had the same thing. There were far more positives than there were negatives. From purchasing our own property. In fact, the negatives were so small compared to the positives. So everything about purchasing your own premises is positive.
[00:59:13] Yes. They all paid more money each month. As expected no one was going to be paying less to be having their own property.
[00:59:20] But this is no problem. If your business is making good money. So yes, you’re going to be paying more, but you will have the cashflow there to do it. So I hope you get something from those takeaways.
[00:59:31] I hope you got something from my, my four guests. I like I said before, this has given me that little nudge to maybe go and look at property. And I said this, I think on the first recording with Jessica. Long-term wouldn’t be great if the Podiatry profession. We lifted each other up instead of tearing each other down. And we were encouraging each other to buy our own premises and for the profession to get stronger because when you actually own. Property when you have assets. It just gives you so much [01:00:00] more confidence.
[01:00:01] So I think he gets something from it. Now, before I wrap up, just remind people, like I said, if you’re enjoying this podcast, Please tell your Podiatry friends. If you’re enjoying these videos, if you happen to be watching the video, click subscribe, hit the bell icon and don’t forget my next two day Podiatry business reboot is in Cairns 26th and 27th of July. Going to my website, Tyson franklin.com or to Podiatry Legends dot com.
[01:00:24] Click on events. Follow all the links there. I’ll tell you right now, it’ll be a two day event. You will absolutely love. So that’s it for me this week. I want you to look after yourself, look after your family and we’ll talk again next week.
[01:00:36] Bye. For now.