Why Did I Sign That Lease?
Five years ago, at the height of Covid, Ami Kassar signed a five-year lease for office space. He’s no longer sure what he was thinking at the time, but it’s kind of worked out.
Here are today’s highlights:
Should business owners sell their refund rights or hold out for a tariff refund?
The SBA promises it will modernize its loan-approval process in 2026.
Small business hiring contracted significantly in November.
In many jurisdictions, businesses will face higher minimum wages in 2026.
COMMERCIAL SPACE
During Covid, Ami Kassar signed a lease for office space—and then completely rethought the way he hires: “Everybody I knew was trying to get out of leases, shrink space, or go fully remote. Meanwhile, I went and did the opposite: I signed a brand-new, five-year office lease. This decision wasn’t the result of deep thinking or some strategic off-site. I found a place in a location I really liked—right next to a train station—and convinced myself that this was going to be an excellent perk for younger employees. Five years later, I can report that precisely zero employees have taken the train. But I honestly believed that when things calmed down, we’d want a physical place to come together. And on that point, I was mostly right—just not in the way I expected.”
“Now that the five years are up, here’s where we landed: We’re renewing the lease. Not all of it—we’ve sublet part of the space because we don’t need that much room anymore. But for the folks who are local, being together once in a while still means something. It gives us something Zoom can’t.”
“What I never imagined back when I signed the lease is that less than half of our team would end up living anywhere near the office, and the ones who do live nearby would come in about half the time. If you’d shown me a picture of the company today, I would’ve assumed you had the wrong business. Covid forced us to think in a totally different way.”
“Once we were all working from home, we started questioning everything. We found good people. Then more good people. And suddenly, where someone lived didn’t matter at all. Today we’ve got team members in five states and two countries. No master plan. No whiteboard exercise. It just happened because we kept chasing talent.” READ MORE
