Long term perspective is critical when choosing a location for your business. Selecting a site is a huge investment for a new business. Relocating at some point in the future would be a costly consequence if you make a mistake when locating a storefront, especially for businesses that have a lot of interpersonal interaction with customers and clients. Some retailers depend on daily walk up or drive up traffic. Some businesses don’t require an elaborate base from which they deal with customers because they deal with their clientele virtually, or through catalogues, mail orders, or third parties. But retailers, restaurants, and even some service businesses depend on storefronts for critical customer decisions.
Here are some points to think about when making your site decision:
How dependent is your product on location? Do you require face to face meetings with clients and customers?
Customer questions to consider: who and where? Is your customer base local, or does the base span the country? Consider your customer pool. The wider the customer pool, the more you are going to need to spend on advertising to get your name out there, and the less likely you are to have much face to face interaction with your customers; in this case, a storefront would be an unnecessary expense. But a retailer that is locally based would have to see customers on a regular basis, and thus be judged on their ability to please those customers. Are there boundaries to consider when making your site choice?
Visibility and convenience are critical to locally based businesses. You need good signage and exposure to walking and driving traffic.
Select a location that matches the demographic demands of your business. If you cater to an upscale market, choose an upscale neighborhood. This underlines the importance of researching demographics in the preparatory phase of the business planning. Remember to research age, income, level of education attained, number of people in the family units and number of people per household. To find this information, see the relevant census data usually available through the Internet or your local library.
Consider your competition. It is always a good idea to seek out exclusive niches. Businesses can attract very local customers, so do not count on stealing customers from your competition just by offering better, cheaper products or services. You have to convince the customers of your competition to switch to your alternative with great finesse.
Consider transportations issues: access to public transportation, traffic flow, transportation facilities, and transportation rates.
Consider the structure. What about parking facilities and the suitability of the structure for future expansion? What about the surrounding community, and community services and amenities?
Choosing a location is a monetary trade off. Better locations will give a better chance of success, but they also tend to cost more than your average or poor location. An increase in overhead always leads to a decrease in overall profitability. On the other hand, if you consider the situation from a long term perspective, the increase in overhead might end up saving you money in the long run by smoothing the way for a steady increase in customers over the years.
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