Choosing the Right Location for Your Small Business: 8 Deciding Factors

The best strategy follows extensive preparation. In Choosing the Right Location for Your Small Business: Budget & Space, we prepared by determining the budget and space needed to choose the right location for your small business. Now we can focus on eight specific factors in order to make our final selection.

Demographics

Who are your target customers? Demographics should drive your location search. You can find demographic estimates and forecasts for locations across the country through the U.S. Small Business Administration. This resource allows you to match up genders, ages, household incomes and more with potential commercial spaces. Find out where your target customers live and move into the neighborhood.

Street traffic

Accessibility and visibility are major considerations. If customers cannot see or access your business, it does not bode well for success. You also want to consider how long shoppers are willing to commute in order to purchase your product or services.

Think of your neighbor. Will their foot traffic find its way into your business? Will a couple on a date leave that movie theater and buy an ice cream cone at your ice cream shop?

Neighboring businesses

Busy retail areas, such as a shopping mall, increase the chances that a consumer from your neighboring business might stumble on your business without even looking for you. These shoppers are there for the shopping, not necessarily for a specific product. Be aware of how your competition is set up and use that information to grow your business.

Staffing

The most important expectation to have of your staff is that they show up. Finding quality employees can be tricky no matter where you set up show. However, if your location prohibits employees from easily making the commute to work, you are not helping the situation.

Safety

An easy commute loses its appeal when it leads to an area with a high crime rate. Customers will not feel it is safe to visit. Qualified employees will not even apply. Those that do will not stick around long once they take a look around.

Building Amenities

You will want to have 24/7 access to the building. This means it must allow for weekend work. Heating and cooling must be provided outside of “normal” business hours.

Zoning and Regulations

Your local small business development center or chamber of commerce branch provides zoning information that will let you know if certain areas of a city or county will even allow your type of business to operate there.

You might be eligible for tax credits and business deductions if you choose to start your business in government-designated areas such as Historically Underutilized Business Zones, Enterprise Zones or Empowerment Communities.

Building History

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Look into who occupied the space before you. Did they succeed or fail? Do the research and find out why. Their success may have led them to move to a larger space. This is a good sign. Their failure may be something you can learn from.

You are now ready to negotiate a lease. This is where an experienced business law attorney comes in. Contact us today to make an appointment.