About a year before the Great Recession came crashing down, we had opened our second store (same town, one store a little out of the way, the new one right downtown). It was my ultimate dream space: beautiful, charming, great location. Also way more expensive; much bigger overhead (but the numbers bore it out). We were doing very well and growing like crazy. Until we weren't. After the crash, people simply stopped spending (especially on home accessories/gifts). And our landlords were less than helpful in working out a survival plan (unfortunately, they owned a number of buildings in town and didn't give their tenants any bit of leeway, as others did). So, with huge sadness, we decided to break our lease, sell off most of the inventory and fixtures, and retreat to our original location (much smaller, decent rent, kind and understanding landlords). Breaking the lease was horribly expensive, but we figured it was our only chance, short of going bankrupt. That was an agonizing decision. After that, I swore we'd never sign a five-year lease again. A dozen or so years later, we're still at our original location, doing very well, still keeping expenses down, and also sleeping at night. Since then, we've been operating on three-year leases with an option to renew and it's worked out just fine.
