Making It Work, From Home

It's tough to be a small business owner in New York City.

Just ask the four owners of Scobee Diner, forced to call it quits in the wake of a fruitless round of negotiations with a landlord looking to double their rent.

That's right: even at the tail-end of the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression, rents for many commercial spaces across northeastern Queens have never been higher.

So what's a budding entrepreneur, largely boxed out by spiraling rents on main drags such as Northern Boulevard and Horace Harding Expressway, to do?

Though it may be impractical (and illegal) for restauranteurs to hang a shingle on their front door, more and more small business owners in other sectors are choosing to opt out of the commercial real estate market entirely.

Take Robert Yoo, a Bayside resident looking to launch his new T-shirt company.

While coming up with a business plan, Yoo said he realized pretty quickly that the cost of leasing a storefront, even in a low-traffic area, was prohibitive for a start-up company looking to get a toe-hold in New York City.

"I knew going in that it was going to take two years, at least, for me to cut a paycheck for myself," Yoo said. "But if I took out a space, that day would have been pushed back five years, at least."

Yoo's solution turned out to be simple and close by — as of July, this North Carolina transplant's base of operations is the Bayside garage where he once parked his car. 

In choosing an alternative to traditional brick-and-mortar commercial real estate, Yoo is certainly not alone.

In fast-growing sectors such as programming and network services, more and more companies are foregoing permanent office locations, preferring instead more flexible options such as shared spaces and home-based employees.

"Wherever you can find savings and increase productivity, you have to grab it and not let go," Yoo said.

Though this creative space use trend certainly won't help Scobee Diner — it may yet ensure that the fire of small business ingenuity will keep burning in northeast Queens.