Location, Location, Location

When it comes about SME’s particularly those from trade, catering and services, location is the single and most important raison d´etre when you are about to set a startup or expanding an existing business



¿Why is this so critically important?


Well mostly because the market you aim to cater is located within a radius of mile or two so this will be called our local market, in which existing business coexist with new ones forming a “business fauna” thus, there lays the importance of actually know the area supply (name it competition), and measure an approximate figure for demand is very helpful, another key fact to examine is whether your product is about to get a good reception, it’s like aiming to sell polish food products in a mostly Afro-American district or vegetarian meals in a rural district where meat is seen as a staple, first at all is trying to offer goods and services that can be assimilated in the local markets, ensuring a constant flow of customers while pocketing a profit from the trade, always remembering a constant flow of customers means a good product acceptance and the decisions mention before where taken correctly

Location is critical before you set up a shop or a service provider, when it comes to CBD location while costs may increase, also the potential impact from the floating population, higher education, constant demand for food, beverages, entertainment and also as corporate support and services provide (ranging from small office supplies stores to accounting and consulting services), and can in fact turn in to profitable trades, but the same kind of business in a lightly populated commuter town at the outskirts of a large metropolitan area, would hardly raise profits at all.


¿How to define business strategies from such several factors?

Always information is the prime tool to attack a market, approach a customer or tailor made a product/customer service strategy to appeal shoppers and clients, if trying to settle to a somewhat large mall with certain traffic, you should be aware of the kind of shopper that flocks to the mall, if setting up in a suburb, at least knowing their habitants profile, income and education levels, if are you planning to setting up nestled between corporate titans in the CBD aiming to capture a slice of their budget or trying to fulfill their employees demand from food, dry cleaning and lattes, it all comes first to know your environment, and the people that flock around this environment.