Your Rent is Eating All Your Revenue (And What to Do About It)
You get excited seeing $12,000 in collections this month. Then you remember rent is $4,500. Plus utilities. Plus insurance. Plus all the other fixed costs that come with your space.
Suddenly that $12,000 feels like $3,000, and you're wondering how the hell you're supposed to make a living when half your revenue goes to keeping the lights on in a building you don't even own.
Maybe you got talked into a "premium location" that was supposed to bring walk-in traffic. Maybe you wanted a beautiful space to impress patients. Maybe you just needed something fast and didn't negotiate hard enough.
Whatever the reason, now you're stuck watching your hard-earned money disappear into someone else's pocket every month while you stress about making payroll.
My $8,000 Shopping Center Nightmare
Let me tell you about the most expensive mistake I ever made. When we expanded to our second location, we were desperate to find space quickly. The consulting company we were working with convinced us that a spot in a busy shopping center would bring tons of foot traffic and new patients.
The rent was $8,000 a month. Plus utilities. Plus common area maintenance fees. Plus all the extra costs that come with retail space. We were paying almost $10,000 monthly just to exist in that location.
"It's a great investment," they said. "Premium locations pay for themselves," they said.
They lied.
You know what we discovered? People going to Target and Starbucks aren't thinking about chiropractic care. They're tunnel-visioned into their errands. We might as well have been invisible.
That $10,000 monthly overhead meant we needed to see 200+ patients every month just to break even on the space. But the "premium location" wasn't bringing in premium patient numbers. We were hemorrhaging money on rent for a location that wasn't delivering the results we paid for.
The Rent-to-Revenue Reality Check
Here's the rule nobody talks about: your rent should never exceed 15-20% of your gross revenue. If you're collecting $12,000 monthly, your rent shouldn't be more than $2,400.
Let's do the math on my disaster: $10,000 rent on $15,000 in collections is 67% of revenue going to occupancy costs. That's not a business—that's a very expensive way to volunteer.
Most wellness practitioners I work with are paying 30-50% of their revenue in rent alone. Add utilities, insurance, and other occupancy costs, and they're spending 60% of their money just to have a place to work.
No wonder you feel like you're working for your landlord instead of yourself.
Here's How to Fix This
Option 1: Increase revenue to match your rent. If your rent is $4,500 and that's 30% of your revenue, you need to be collecting $15,000 monthly. That might mean raising prices, seeing more patients, or adding services. Calculate what it would actually take to make your current space profitable.
Option 2: Negotiate your lease. Most landlords would rather keep a good tenant at reduced rent than deal with vacancy and finding someone new. Come prepared with market research, your payment history, and a reasonable proposal. The worst they can say is no.
Option 3: Sublease part of your space. If you're only using your space 30 hours a week, rent it out to other practitioners during off hours. A massage therapist, counselor, or nutritionist might pay $500-1,000 monthly for evening or weekend access.
Option 4: Move when your lease is up. This is scary but sometimes necessary. Calculate how much you'd save monthly with a more reasonable rent, multiply by 12 months, and you'll see how much staying in an expensive space is actually costing you annually.
Option 5: Share space with other practitioners. Partner with complementary practices to split a larger space. You get lower rent and built-in referral sources.
The Location Lie
Here's what the real estate people don't tell you: for wellness practices, location matters way less than you think. Your patients aren't shopping for chiropractors like they shop for groceries. They're not going to stumble into your office because it's next to Whole Foods.
Most of your patients will come from referrals, online searches, and word of mouth. They'll drive across town for quality care from someone they trust. The extra $2,000 you're spending monthly on a "prime location" could be better spent on marketing that actually brings in patients.
I learned this the hard way. Our original office in a basic medical building consistently outperformed our expensive shopping center location because the patients who found us were looking for us specifically, not just wandering by.
How I Help Practitioners Escape Rent Traps
I work with chiropractors, massage therapists, and acupuncturists who are tired of working for their landlord instead of themselves. We don't just accept high rent as "the cost of doing business"—we find ways to make your space work for your profit, not against it.
In my 90-Day Profit Clarity Program, we analyze your rent-to-revenue ratio and identify whether your space is helping or hurting your profitability. We organize your occupancy costs to see exactly what you're paying for, audit your space utilization to find income opportunities you're missing, and create action plans to either optimize your current location or transition to something more sustainable.
I check in throughout the 90 days because real estate decisions are scary, and you need someone who understands the numbers helping you make them.
Ready to stop letting rent eat your revenue? Download my free budget spreadsheet [Budget] to calculate your real occupancy costs, or book a call [Work Together] to discuss optimizing your space for profit in the 90-Day Program.
Because your rent should support your business, not strangle it.
