Picking a location for your business can mean many things. It can mean you’re looking for a storefront location, or maybe it’s looking for an online store, or a website that you can put your product onto. This all relates to the location of your business. Where will you be present to serve your customers?
If you are looking for a storefront location, I am going to refer you back to a time of buying a home. If you ever buy a house, your Realtor probably will tell you three words. Location, location, location! This is true when it comes to looking at a storefront location. You want to pick a location that suits your business well.
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Is it a location where people can find you, if that’s what you want. I am guessing so, but that’s not always the case. Let me give you a real life example. My printing company wants a location where people can’t find them off the street. In that industry they have large projects, not small ones where you can walk in and print one piece of paper. That’s not the business they’re looking for; they wanted to be in a location where people couldn’t just do “walk-in’s” to print one piece of paper. They actually moved locations into an industrial location because now they’re not having the walk in traffic because that’s not who they are looking to serve. They are looking to serve bigger clients, with bigger jobs and projects.
When it comes to my grooming business, I want to be in such a good area that people just gravitate towards my business with other awesome local businesses around me. I say that because my store front sits on a location of a Starbucks parking lot, which is crazy busy all day long. It’s a love hate relationship that I have a Starbucks, the reason being is that there’s no parking for my customers, but I get a ton of new clients, because people are always going to Starbucks. So I picked a location based on traffic. So that people could find me.
It’s also important if you have an online business. What platform will you be on? Will you have an online store within the website you have, what will your online store look like? Everyone is shopping online, so that means everyone can find you, if you are doing the right things. For example: social media, SEO, advertising. That’s a perfect world. But you have to do your research on how people can find you. How are your products or services setting you apart from other businesses? This is something that you need to know. Are you ahead of your competition? Picking your location on how people can find you online is key. Keeping up with what social media platforms are working. It’s very important to not have all your platforms all in one basket. Make sure you are covering your grounds as to where you sell online. Let’s just say that if Facebook goes away…what will you do if that is your source for social media and getting your message to customers?
It’s wont be good, so have many platforms where you are present. It’s amazing what your online presence can do for your business.
The other option is to use resources that are already out there, such as Etsy.com. They will allow you to put your product on their website to sell. You become a vendor in their database, which is pretty neat, since they already have the traffic coming to their site. Downfall, do they take a percentage? Or do they disappear in the online community… Always protect yourself in the online community. Amazon can be one as well, you can be a vendor of Amazon. Putting your product on their site to sell.
Location is such a powerful tool for your business. Location can make or break your business. You need to be where people are, that will make your business flourish. Find your platform on how you were going to sell your product or service based on the locations you pick. Always remember to pick the best location for your business. I will leave you with saying, location, location, location! Did I say, location?