How to choose a location for your business?

Business location is one of its key features. Choosing where your business will be, isn’t something to do lightly and without careful planning. It will mean a lot in terms of infrastructure and it’s a way to project how you want your business to be seen.

It’s also one of the most long-lasting investments you can make regardless of do you make your own office or you rent one for a longer period of time. Therefore, it’s a decision to be made with the future plans in mind.

Style of operations

The first thing to take into account is the style of your business operations. This means that you need to know what your business will be like and what your office will be used for. If your office is strictly for doing business, it should be focused on functionality and on the needs of your employees.

However, if the business requires you to take on a lot of meetings you’ll need to factor that in, because every meeting is a way to present your company to the public and to showcase what your company is about.

Demographics

Where your business is based will determine who will visit it and who will be able to travel to it. There are two angles to take into account here. The first is obviously who your customers are and the second is who your employees should be.

Choosing where to put your office may be a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy – eg. you want put a fancy office in an area that has no fancy offices, therefore there no fancy offices in that area. That’s why it’s sometimes important to break the cycle and to take advantage of a lower rent in some area, and attract the customers to you.

Foot traffic

This is a rather important metric for some businesses but not so much for others. For instance, retail businesses depend very much on foot traffic for their operations while businesses that don’t sell or provide services to the customers directly don’t.

That’s something that you have to decide on based on what you sell. It’s also useful to monitor foot traffic outside a certain spot before you decide on it and to do this on different days of the week just to make sure you know what you’re dealing with.

Parking and accessibility

If your business requires you to have customers and employees coming in on regular basis, you’ll need to consider how practical that is. That will mean you need to have enough parking space for both the employees and those who are coming in. it’s a large space and one that can’t be used for multiple purposes.

You’ll also have to consider accessibility for the elderly and persons with disability. This is partly a matter of governmental regulations and partly about making sure that your business is there for everyone who want to use its services.

Competition

It’s also important to have in mind how close by are your competitors. If there are a lot of similar businesses in the area, you may drive away customers from one another and especially so if other businesses working there are more established.

However, there’s a case to be made for seeing this the other way as well. For instance, if all businesses are located in one area you don’t want to be out of the loop and overlooked by the customers because you’re too far away. It’s a matter of finding the balance between these approaches.

Sites image and history

Buildings are a part of our lives and the culture of the places we live in. That’s something to have in mind. If your business is taking over a location that’s known in the area for something else that may not go well in the community. In some cases, however, it can have the opposite effect and be seen as a try to improve the area you’re working in.

All of these aren’t to be taken lightly and it’s best to know the community your coming to and feel its pulse first before making any long term commitment.

Conclusion

A location of a business will mean a lot in terms of its infrastructure and your ability to do business and to make a profit. The location will say a lot about the style of your business and how your plan to present yourself to the clients.

It will also say a lot about who your customers and employees can be and in the end the location means infrastructure and accessibility. All of these should be taken into account as well before you decide to purchase or rent a space for your business. This is especially true if it’s a long term engagement