Whether you are used to working out of your home or garage or are a new entrepreneur looking for a good place for your offices, many people will remind you that a major factor for success is location. When you’re looking for a new business location, there are a lot of factors to consider. Some of these factors include accessibility, competition, clientele, and employee needs. Researching commercial properties can be very overwhelming, especially if you’ve never done it before. As you look at potential location after location, there are a few things you should keep in mind. Here are five key signs that you’ve stumbled across the right location for your business operations.
It’s Accessible
Accessibility is more than just having ramps or wide doorways. You can have what you believe is the perfect location for customers to find you, but its inaccessibility could shoot you in the foot. Even though customers can see and know about your location, they may not come because they don’t know how to physically get to you. Things like a lack of easily accessible parking and not knowing how to exit a highway to get to your location can discourage customers from visiting your business location. Think about how fences, roadways, and flow of traffic affect your business location from a customer perspective. In addition, have easily identifiable parking for visitors. In addition, remember to include disability parking and other accommodations like automatic doors and elevators inside your building.
It’s The Right Size For Current and Future Needs
You need to make sure your business has room to grow. While you don’t want a location that is too big for your current staff, you do want to pay attention to your potential growth. One of the main factors you need to consider when finding a new business location is its size. You need to ensure that it’s big enough to house your current staff and equipment. In addition, you should consider how you want to expand in the near future. Your new location should be big enough to accommodate an expansion of the size you are aiming for.
It’s Near Your Competitor
Another thing that can positively impact your business is proximity to the competition. You may be thinking twice about this one at first but the best location you can get is close to your competitor. When you let them have access to areas of commercial property in a specific area, they can easily dominate that market. However, when you introduce your business to theirs, it gives their customers another choice to try. Look for commercial property for sale in a place dominated by the competition to put a crack in their monopoly.
The Area Matches Your Target Market
You want to make sure that your office location matches where your target marketing demographic lives, works, or spends leisure time. One factor that many business owners forget to include when looking for their ideal location is their target market. There are many analysis tools on the market that can be utilized to learn where your target market lives and work. Just taking some time to scope out a potential place can reveal a lot about the people that function in that area. It’s best to choose an area that is filled of your target market or demographic.
Your Employees Like It
While you do need to focus on your business and clientele, remember that employees also matter. Part of moving any business is thinking about your greatest assets: your employees. Ensuring that they’re up to the move can make or break your success in the future. It’s always a good idea to consider how much further your employees are going to have to travel to get to your new location. You should also encourage them to participate in the final location selection by taking surveys about their thoughts on potential new locations.
Finding the perfect business location starts with knowing what to look for. When looking for a new business location, keep these 5 signs of a perfect location in mind. When you get these right, you can ensure that you’re picking a great business location to operate out of.
