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Success or failure depends on where you locate your business

Every entrepreneur hopes to find a fancy location with plenty of space, but many businesses cannot support the cost.

Research conducted by the website entrepreneur.com has found that many start-up mistakes can be corrected later, but a poor choice of location is likely to kill a business.

The product that you sell and the location you operate from are usually inseparable because the product must meet the needs of the local community.

This means you must consider many factors before you choose a location for your business.

Give priority to essential services such as water, sanitation, waste removal, police and fire stations, and health institutions.

Transport and logistics are key factors that will determine the success of your location because customers and employees need transport to get to your business.

If you manufacture or supply large volumes of goods you also need to think about accessibility for trucks. You need their service to receive and distribute your merchandise.

Calculate the costs of delivering your service or product. Excessive spending on transport will limit your profits.

Consider the environment and the surrounding itself. Will you be able to tolerate the day-to-day activities in the area?

Think about what might attract your target clients to your location. Proximity to the places people frequent will make your business more visible to potential clients. Visibility and accessibility should top your checklist of considerations.

Shopping centres and business and office parks usually host restaurants and shops that other tenants need. They also usually offer professionals such as doctors, lawyers and accountants.

The choice of a location will be determined by your type of business. So, you can use space at your home if you want to start a spaza shop. You can start small and move to a bigger space when your business grows.

But you could also consider shopping centres, malls and freestanding buildings for retail operations. For a commercial service you could consider business and office parks. You might be surprised to find you can rent an office with equipment at a reasonable fee. Just shop around.

If you are venturing into manufacturing, you will most likely need space in an industrial area. These places are usually far from where people live. Because people only go there to work or buy, transport is a crucial consideration in this type of location.

You can also search for business space in the classified section of your local newspaper.

Above all make sure that the potential local customers have enough disposable income for your product or service. As long as people don't have money to spend on your product, you might as well forget starting.

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