How did you choose the location for your business? 🏬

[isabelle]

Hey Seller Community 👋 

Today's question is...

How did you choose the location for your business? Was it for commuting purposes? Is it centrally located?

If you don't have a brick and mortar, feel free to share why your business does best online! 

I look forward to reading your replies ✨

[TumbleweedCafe]

My location chose me.  I had seen this old closed down coffee shop in my town of 700.  I always thought how cool it would be to open it up.  Low and behold, someone bought it and offered me to lease it 🙂

[yallsbbq]

We chose our location strictly based on convenience. Our own convenience, LOL! Being that we are a BBQ joint and it's a 24-hour job of adding wood to the pit, we just could not picture driving somewhere multiple times overnight.

[MadIslandCandle]

We started our handmade candle business (Madeline Island Candles) in our kitchen in 2011. Very low overhead, but it soon took over the house. We moved into a 400 square foot storefront in 2012. A year later, we had already outgrown that location, and started looking at other spots on Madeline Island (a popular summer destination). The first time we looked at the 1940's 2-story single family home for sale across from the ferry dock, we weren't sure we could make it work as both a production facility and a retail space. Lucky for us, a year later, the place was still on the market. By then, my partner had visualized how it could work, and we bought it. The accessible ramp we were required to put in from the sidewalk when we converted a residence to commercial use was ingeniously designed by an architect to visually and physically funnel guests from the ferry dock crosswalk to our front door. Based on our experience since then, I'd say the three most important factors in our decision were location, location, and location.

Also, we recently moved our online store to Square for Retail from a much more complex (than we needed) platform that was costing a small fortune in consulting fees and upgrades. We also stopped selling on others' sites. This has greatly improved our online profitability.

[Alacarte]

I am located in a historical house built in 1895 right off the main street. We love the old house, each room has it's own service. The business started in 1987 and eventually I brought in the Square app to all my renters (in 2013) because they had all given up on bank fees and processing fees. Square made for a pretty seamless transition for everyone and  while nobody likes fees, this service has always been exemplary.

[ndtarin]

We are online, brick and mortar and mobile pop up. Our location has been located in the same spot since 1989, so for us its a matter of community awareness, sticking to what works and being fortunate enough not to have to deal with rent/landlord.  Online allows us to operate with flexibility.  When we have product launches we can literally complete all tasks in a large enough space and have USPS pick up from anywhere with a street address. The mobile pop up side was dormant during Covid-19 but given the right event we can kill it in sales during a short amount of time. My business is a full service print shop specializing in wholesale apparel decoration and part of that business allow me to operate a full retail gift and souvenir shop that also function as a show room for our printing services.

I will say that we do use Square only for the retail side of the business. Manufacturing and wholesale apparel sales is usually bank transfer or check.  

My drive is 15 min from my home. We are somewhat centrally located, HUD Zone Hispanic owned. 

[Purp24]

For me it was in my hometown which made me move back here. Then the fact that it had some great businesses in the building that i could share customers with was another. located on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and being the only black owned business on the street was big for me. I am the owner of Elleki (The Drip Store) it's a clothing boutique in Stockton Ca. 

[BofBArtStudio]

Our Historic Downtown Square is a place I fell in love with 15 years ago when I moved into Chandler Arizona from another suburb of Phoenix.  When a building in the Square came up for sale at the same time we were discussing the business plan of our business, we jumped on it.  Seven and a half years ago, we purchased the building and the business was launched.  We could not be happier!!

[Tylertugtown]

I think its best to just start, wherever you are just go for it! A lot of times we get caught up overthinking while you could already be making money then hire an analytics person to find the best market to be in, START! Best of luck. 

[mhudgen]

I own a coffee shop, and the reason for my location was largely based on traffic. I opted to be located on the highway rather than our main street due to the amount of highway traffic coming in and out of our small town. There is also a hotel and grocery store located within close proximity to us so those were also determining factors. We do have a coffee shop on our main street as well, and they do not compete with us and it is largely because we are the first shop that visitors see when they come to town.

[dwaynedixon]

-Being on the same corner for over 24ys. as a black photographer is a Testament in it -self. In these days and time like a busy street .

[Alexander001]

Own Location

[Franco]

We needed a much larger location because we outgrew our original store.  Commercial real estate firms in our area told us that they would only rent to national or regional chains (we are a family founded small business). We called the sign of a new commercial center being build near us and the 78 year old developer met us at the construction site two days days later.  He gave us the center spot on the strip facing a state highway with 40,000 cars passing our store every day.  He did no background check, no credit check. He looked us in the eye to see if he could trust us.  9 years later, between other national chains, we have a non-stop busy business!

[pessosices]

Great question, @isabelle !

We were looking at locations to open up a new shop, but the opportunity came to take over an existing one. Because it had an existing customer base and was in a good neighborhood with good parking, we jumped on it! While it would have been better to maybe be in a more visible spot with more busy foot traffic, it's worked out very well for us!

[cprsafety]

Traffic and the cost of the rent.  Location, Location Location,  Is still true.  But after 13 years we are looking at much higher rents which will cause problem.

[Bronze_Palms]

I had a location prior to my salon, so when I chose my next location, it was important that I wasn't too far away. I moved a mile away.

A well-lit parking lot was important for late appointments.

A clean, kept exterior meant the landlord took care of the building.

[Bluetozai]

We took the place “no one will take” in our neighbor, just temporarily, we had to practically re-do it by our self, and give it our humble personal touch…. we’re now 4 years and…people seems to love the place!

[rtfulk]

We have been in business for 36 years and have never had a Brick and Mortar store. We have always been mobile, we work state fairs across the country. We feel why wait for customers to come to you when you can go to them. We work fairs that average between 500,000 - 2.8 million people in 10-12 days.  We would never get that type of traffic in a B&M store. We promote our website and app heavily to get repeat business year around. We are on the road 298 days a year, so this lifestyle isn't for everyone, but we enjoy it.

[Purp24]

nice i love the dedication to it

[GK5]

I would suggest that if you are new to it then start with one location which you find more suitable for example if you are based in the US then target one country at a time and when you got more experience you will get an idea about your audience and budgeting as well. hope this will help you.😊