One of the biggest challenges you will face as a business owner when starting out is choosing your business location. As a business owner, you must understand how important location is to your business success. It could make or break your new business, hence you need to do a lot of research into finding the perfect location.
Although, there are other factors that contribute to your business success such as irresistible advertisement, excellent customer service, good product development, strong brand perception, your business location is also equally as important. Your customers need to be able to gain access to your product or experience your service without a lot of hassle.
Here are a few important factors to critically look into before choosing a business location!
1 – Relevance of the location to your business
The type of business you want to start would determine whether you need a business location or not. Not all businesses require a physical location. In fact, most people start and run their businesses from the comfort of their homes these days. So why waste money on getting a property for your business when you can spent that money on something else that will help the business grow. For example if your business is service oriented like graphics design, proposal and business plan writing etc., you don’t need a business location to run; BUT! if you are offering products like manufacturing, retail store, then you definitely need a business location.
2 – The type of location suitable for my business
There’re different locations for different business. If you get this right, your chance for success has increased by more than 50%. You need to determine the best location that will suit the type of business you want to run. Some of the things to consider are convenience for potential clients and customers, human traffic to attract customers on its own, general perception of the location by people and the safety of customers’ valuables and properties. You also need to find out if the existence of similar or complimentary businesses would serve as an advantage or disadvantage to your business.
3 – My budget for rent
Your budget based on your financial capacity would determine the location as well as the size of the space you will rent for your business. You can’t afford to spend too high on rent without considering what your return on investment (ROI) will be. Therefore, you must weigh your options very well to know if you should take a big space or start with a small one.
4 – Does my location permit my business
After getting the right location for your business, you need to take some steps further by asking questions from other business owners within the neighbourhood to know if your line of business would be permitted there or not. The landlord association or the local government authority in that business premise may either agree or disagree with your type of business. Hence you need to know ahead of time before paying. You will also need to find out if it is a place that your customers would find convenient to come to.
Remember you are not in business to satisfy yourself, but to meet the needs of your customers. Cash is king and this comes from your customers. You must know if your business location is friendly to your prospective customers. If your business environment does not make your customers comfortable or relaxed, it is just a matter of time before you are out of business.
Choose wisely too.
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5 – Who owns the property?
You need to know the owner of the property; this will save you a lot of headache later on. Some properties are family owned; therefore several people could lay claim to it in the future. Request to meet the head of that family and try to do your due diligence about other things such as payment for utilities and amenities from other occupiers. This will help you avoid paying rent repeatedly or fall into debt.
Make friends with the property owner too. You never can tell if you will end up buying the property. They will also fight for your cause whenever they are having their family meeting and prevent your business from being disturbed.
The benefits of choosing the right business location is inexhaustible as it is very strategic to how your business will thrive in months and years to come. It will also determine how fast your business can grow. So once again, choose wisely!
