Choose a Strategic Location for Your New Business
Are you ready to launch your new business [3] and looking for a state or metropolitan area that will help you optimize your growth? Where can you locate, or relocate, your production center in order to give yourself the best access to your target market and the best advantage over your competition? As you scan the map and get ready to pack your bags, keep these considerations in mind.
Where Should You Center Your Business in 2012?
- Your choice of location, first and foremost, will depend on an availability of opportunity and a lack of obstacles. But don’t take apparent obstacles and opportunities at face value. Do intense research and crunch the numbers carefully. Some states may allow you to pay lower wages to your workers, for example, but will staffing your office with underpaid workers really help your business grow?
- Your location will also strongly depend on your access to both your raw materials and your target customer audience. If you’re in the tech business, it may be wiser to move to California than Wyoming. The opposite may be true if you distribute feed for livestock or broker deals in the agricultural industry. If you’re in manufacturing, your raw material costs will rise greatly if you have to add a long trucking route between the harbor and your processing facility.
- As you calculate your needs and costs, make sure you account for both the short term and the long term. If you need access to clean water to formulate your beverage product or lubricate your machinery, what will your water access look like in both the near and distance future? Perform the same calculations for every other geographic resource on which your business depends.
- How will you staff your company [4]? What kinds of talent do you need above all others? Would it be wise to position your business near a relevant academic institution or an area with a culture that strongly supports this talent? Learn everything you can about the competition you face for human capital. If your potential staff is located five states away from one of your most important natural resources, perform careful calculations as you decide how to hedge your bets.
- Consider the tax rates for new businesses in your chosen area. But again, look twice and don’t take these rates at face value. Lower business taxes can often mean fewer resources for a thriving community. And your business will depend on the health of your community.
What criteria are you using as you seek out a location for your business? Share your comments and advice with our readers below.