Find the Best Location for Your Business

You may heard the term"location" more than a few times. But if you're in the throes of creating a spectacular menu for your new restaurant or finding wholesalers for your first retail store, it might not be the first thing on your mind.

It's time to put location at the top of your to-do list. If you're preparing to open a food or retail business with a storefront, putting your business in the proper location might be the single most important thing you do at startup. Of course you need a winning product, too, but how will anyone know about that product unless you get them through the door?

"In the brick-and-mortar retail world, it's said that the three most important decisions [you'll make] are location, location and location," affirms Irene Dickey, a lecturer in management and marketing at the University of Dayton's School of Business in Dayton, Ohio. "Careful determination of new sites is critical for most retail and consumer service businesses."

Check Your Demographics

Making these determinations can be as simple or as complex as you make it. There are, for instance, sophisticated location analysis tools available that include traffic pattern information, demographic and lifestyle data, and competitive analyses. Adds Dickey: "For a price, a retailer can ask such questions as, 'If I'm looking to add a store to a particular market, what's the optimum level of traffic as it relates to the specific targeted trade area? What is the overall type of traffic? Once consumers are in the store, is there any way to measure the traffic patterns in the store?'"

"Do your due diligence," advises Michael Rodelle, director of real estate for the Papa Gino's Inc./D'Angelo Sandwich Shops franchise, based in Dedham, Massachusetts. "Get a demographic overview of the area you're looking atùage, income, households, etc."

In addition, you should look at neighborhood traffic generators, such as other retailers that draw people to the area, industrial or office parks, schools, colleges and hospital complexes. You'll also want to look at both highway and foot traffic. Carlos Silva, co-founder of Memphis Championship Barbecue in Las Vegas, learned all about finding a good location when he and his three co-founders (Dick Hart, Mike Mills and Dan Volland) opened their first restaurant in 1994. "We opened our first business in the middle of nowhere, and we had to work to get people to go to it," says Silva.