Your Business Location: Factors to Consider

When it comes to shaping a business’ success, there are a number of contributory factors: the brains, talent and skill behind an enterprise, the funding in place, and its relevance, to name but a few. Key amongst these is location.

The location of an enterprise can have a huge impact on its performance. It shapes so many different things: staff morale, image, professionalism, accessibility, and even the talent pool that you can hire from. Make the wrong decision, and you’ll find that although rents are low, your profits are even more meagre; make the right choice, and you could secure a solid customer base, content employees, a skilled team, and soaring profits.

Business in London
photo credit: Trey Ratcliff / Flickr

So, when it comes to choosing a location, how do you know that you’re making the right decision? Here are just a few of the factors that you ought to consider.

Transport Links and Accessibility

When it comes to choosing the perfect location for your enterprise, one of the most important things to consider is transport links. Your staff will have to journey to work every single day, and it’s important that this is made as easy as possible for them. A long commute gets the day off to a bad start, so siting your office in the middle of the countryside is rarely a good idea. Town centre locations, on the other hand, can generally be reached via car, bus, or train.

An added plus point of choosing an accessible site is that not only will your employees be grateful, but you’ll also have a wider pool of people to choose from. Few professionals are willing to travel more than half an hour each way for work, so the more towns and cities that lay within a 30 minute proximity, the greater the talent pool you’ll be able to choose from. This is particularly important for companies that are committed to scouting young talent, as many graduates and young professionals don’t have cars for commuting.

Appearance

Although we’ve all heard the old adage that ‘you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover’, that’s exactly what people do when they visit a company’s premises. Businesses that choose to site their headquarters in rundown areas, thanks to the allure of lower rents, will find it much harder to be taken seriously. They’ll instantly be viewed as a low-end enterprise, and this can be very damaging to a company’s image. Siting your offices, factory or shop in a more prestigious area has the opposite effect, garnering instant acclaim and respect from any visitors.

Central St. Giles office building in London
photo credit: Rick Ligthelm / Flickr

Aesthetic appearance is just as important. Although your budget will limit your options to a certain extent, any premises that you choose should be neat, presentable, and clean. Litter should not be tolerated, and nor should peeling paintwork, overgrown outside areas, or a general air of dilapidation. The same rule applies to your interior space, which is particularly important to bear in mind if you’re considering furnished premises.

Proximity to Clients and/or Customer Base

Another plus point for any potential site is its proximity to your clients/customer base. Although this is more important for some industries, such as retail, than others, it is always useful to be as close as possible to your major clients. This makes communication and face-to-face meetings much easier to arrange, and the practicality of such an arrangement will be a major plus point in your favour when it comes to renewing contracts.

Bear these top tips in mind today to find the perfect location for your business premises.