Jodi Hilton for The New York TimesBarbara Lynch owns nine culinary businesses.

Today’s Question

What small-business owners think.

We’ve just published an interview with Barbara Lynch, an extremely successful restaurateur in Boston who has one big regret about her business: She doesn’t own any of the real estate. “My advice would be, try to own the property,” Ms. Lynch told Glenn Rifkin. “I don’t care if it’s a garage but buy it because with me, nine restaurants later, I don’t own any of my buildings. I lease. I make developers pretty successful, but I’d rather own because when you leave, after 25 or 30 years, you don’t own anything except the equipment, which ages like a car or your body.”

Do you own the building that your business inhabits? If so, how did you manage to buy the building while also investing in the business? Any advice for those who would like to do the same?

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=d358942851881e32f55c1f7ac12a995b