How to choose the location of a business

How to choose the location of a business

The location, especially in the case of retail businesses that require commercial premises to serve the public, is one of the most important decisions you must make when starting a business .
Location commensurate with the concept or style of our business, you have a good influx of public and allows good visibility of our business, could ensure success; while a location in a nice little room, away from traffic areas, with few access roads to the public, could significarnos failure.
If we add that today most good locations are already taken, and once we decide we a be very difficult to change the location of a business is a decision that we should meditate well.
To select the location of a business the first thing to consider is the type of business you have.
For example, if we have a retail business which directly serve the public as a clothing or jewelry, ideal location would be a good influx of public and allows good visibility of the business;however, if we have a manufacturing business where we sell products wholesale to retail businesses, the ideal location would be in an industrial area with wide avenues of entry and exit for vehicles.
Or, for example, if we have a fast food restaurant, the ideal location would be on a fairly busy central area (as people often turn to these establishments per pulse); however, if we have a gourmet restaurant, we could locate far from the central areas and still be successful if they offer good quality dishes and do proper promotion.

But regardless of the type of business you have, some considerations to take into account when choosing the location of a business are:

    influx of public : if you have a retail business, regardless of whether you are in the street, in a mall or in a gallery, the greater the number of people in the area (the larger the number of persons passing Nearby), the more likely we will have to visit us.
    visibility : should also have a retail business, while our business has better visibility (the better to be seen this or our adverts for consumers traveling on foot or in vehicles in the area), the more likely we will have to visit us.
    Accessibility : An important requirement is that the location is easily accessible, ie that sufficient access roads so that our customers can visit on foot or in vehicles, and / or our suppliers to supply us promptly whenever it we require.
    Easy location : we must also ensure that we are easily located by our audience (especially one coming from remote areas and do not know the area very well), the street is easily located on a map, and nearby there are references and known as so they can easily find.
    demographics : in terms of demographics we see if the town has a high population density, or if you are populated enough to have good chances of attracting a lot of customers.
    Consumers : one must also ensure that the business is located located close to where you live, work or frequent our goal pubic, given that consumers always prefer to buy at the nearest place to live, work or patronizing.
    competition : in terms of competition we must see if there are competitors nearby businesses (which in some cases is good because we could take the number of people who generate other businesses) and, if so, whether there is sufficient demand in the area to locate a business more.
    atmosphere of the area : an important requirement is that the area and the surroundings have a nice atmosphere and in keeping with the concept or style we will give our business (for example, if we are to put a gourmet style restaurant is preferable quiet before a busy).
    Infrastructure : we must ensure that the local has the necessary elements for the smooth running of our business, and with enough space for us to operate efficiently and our customers are comfortable; considering our projected growth in the short and long term.
    Parking : we must also ensure that the local has sufficient parking lots or parking for vehicles of our customers and our employees, considering the number of customers in vehicles we expect to have, and will hire workers.
    costs : another important factor to consider is the cost of the purchase or rental of premises (usually, the more central or more commercial is the area where it is located, or highest number of visitors there in this, more your cost) and the cost of repairs that might be needed.
    licensing and regulations : Finally, we must ensure that grant us the operating license for the type of business we're going to put (and not assume that we will give it because there are already similar businesses in the area), and there are no regulations or restrictions that may affect its operation.

As for finding a home, the process is similar to searching for a home: can start by going to the classifieds in the newspaper and on Internet sites ranked announcements, and then tour the area where we wish it were located our business (eg, areas where there are similar businesses) to see if we can find some local for sale or for rent.
And then, to make the final decision, we must consider the factors described above, according to the weight or importance we give to each (taking into account the type of business you have, our goals and our budget), and relying our intuition, choose the most suitable location for our business.
Finally it should be noted that an alternative we have is to locate our business, at least initially, in our own home, which would give us the advantage of saving a lot of money on the rent or purchase of a home, work a comfortable environment, and being close to our family.
The downside could be that customers who visit us could get the impression of a not very professional image of our business, our staff may not feel very comfortable, and our family could constantly distracted; although this could be solved if we define clearly the place where our business will develop and separated from the rest of the house, and speak well for our family to respect our place and working hours.