Go / no-go checklist before you lease
Before you sign a lease, require a named market cell, a competitor walk, customer proof for your wedge, constraint fit, and money math that survives a slow quarter.
For Local business operators
Leases are long. Spreadsheets are short. Use a checklist that can produce a hard no, not a motivational poster.
ApexPull feeds the market-cell section. You still own walks, money, and law. Require a named city × niche cell with numbers you trust, a walked competitor sample, customer proof that your wedge matters, constraint fit, and a money plan that survives a slow quarter. Any hard fail is a no-go.
Market cell and competitor walk
Write the niche and city in one line. Review place count (call out too tiny or absurdly large). Note own-website rate or gap, assign a qualitative label (crowded online, offline-heavy, sparse), know the freshness or source date, and compare against at least one alternative city using the compare method. Stale data, a single city considered, or a niche you cannot license are hard stops. Pull cells from Markets after free signup.
Then visit at least ten competitors, or all of them if fewer. Note pricing posture, queues, hours, and language. Check whether “no website” rivals still win on WhatsApp and walk-ins. Find at least one concrete weakness your wedge attacks, and at least one rival who would crush you if you are sloppy. If every rival is excellent and cheaper, or your wedge is irrelevant on the street, stop.
Customers, constraints, and money
Hold at least ten conversations with target customers, not friends who “would totally come.” Get a clear answer on how they find and book today, evidence that your digital or ops wedge changes a decision, and a willingness-to-pay signal that is not flattery. If nobody in the segment feels the friction you plan to sell against, that is a no-go.
On constraints, time and fund the licensing path, staff months one through three, solve supplier or workshop limits, check language and neighborhood fit, and know your personal runway if revenue slips. A license timeline longer than runway, or a need for a unicorn hire on day one, should end the discussion.
On money, write rent, fit-out, and three months of fixed costs; a conservative weekly revenue case; break-even math you can explain without a deck; and kill criteria (“If X by month Y, we exit or pivot”). ApexPull does not compute TAM in currency. Listing counts are not cash flow.
Any hard no-go means stop; do not negotiate the lease “just to see.” Soft concerns only means time-box more walks and chats. All sections green means proceed to commercial negotiation with eyes open.
The surrounding cluster is market-data idea filters, website-gap niche scans, city compare, and digital wedge. When you need the cell numbers in one place, start free and save the view before you email a landlord.