Rent is the biggest budget item for many practices, so you need to choose the right space solution. My wife Risa started her practice renting daily office space and gradually worked her way up to where we now own our office suite and rent out excess space to other clinicians. This means that not only have we seen it all, we’ve experienced most of it firsthand.

When Risa opened her own practice, she was super nervous about signing a lease for one day a week for a whole year. It took a bit of doing, but I convinced her that having even one client would more than cover the rent, so she felt safe signing that first lease. Over time, as her practice evolved, her perfect solution evolved with it.  If you’re trying to figure out what sort of space is perfect for your practice, here’s how you can decide by answering at most four simple questions.

Your answers will depend on how many in-person clients you anticipate having at any one time in the coming year, how flexible you need to be to fit them into a part-time space, and how high-end a space your ideal client expects. Ultimately, if your practice does very well, it may make sense to buy your own office suite just as we did.