Deciding your business location

When starting a local business, we often only think about two factors when determining where to start our business… is it a convenient place for you to start? And… are there plenty of people who have enough money to purchase your services?

While these are two great questions (especially depending on what your goals are) they may not be the most important questions you need to ask.

Seeing as there are successful Launch27 businesses in almost every major city across the world, you can start a local business anywhere. However, asking these five questions below can help increase your chances of success.

So what should you ask yourself when deciding the location for your local business?

1. Is there competition?

This may feel counterintuitive. You may feel like you don’t want competition so it will be easier for you to succeed, but no competition is actually not usually a good indication of potential success.

A good indication of potential success is competition that is doing well in your service area. That means there is demand and customers purchasing your product. After all, there are probably not too many snow cone shops in the Tundra… and there is a good reason why. Following and improving on the success of others is a good way to build a successful business.

2. How dense is your service area?

This may not seem like a big deal when getting started, but as you grow and your teams are traveling further, having a dense service area or a larger pool of customers in a smaller area can save you money and can help grow your business faster. If you live in a dense area, not only are you cutting down on traveling time and gas, but you can make your ad spend go further. While the amount of people in a given location is not the end all when making your decision, it is an important factor when measuring pros and cons.

3. Who is your target customer and do they live in that area?

We typically think dollar signs when looking at who our potential customer is, but that’s not always who our target customer ends up being. Often, super affluent people have their own housekeepers and may not hire a company so wealth shouldn’t be your only indicator of who may purchase your services.

Consider other lifestyle factors like– whether they are too busy and looking for more free time or if they have life changing events happening (i.e having a baby) rather than just looking at how much money they have or make.

4. Where do your potential employees live?

You can’t have a successful business if you don’t have people to do the work. If the area you are targeting is particularly affluent, you may not be able to find employees close enough to that location to service it. You want to make sure you have a good enough pool of workers close enough to your service area before you decide where you are going to start a business.

5. Will the location work for your lifestyle?

Some people prefer to be right in the town they are based out of. Others prefer their work to be remote. Look what your goals are for your business and then make the decision based off of those goals.

Want to learn more about remote working? Watch this webinar.

Still thinking about where your service area should be? Made a decision and used other tips to come to your conclusion? We would love to hear about them.