7 Factors Affecting Business Location You Ought To Know
The factors affecting business location range from security to the easiness of customer access. If you happened to check out our previous post on Business Location Importance 101, then I’m sure by now you know that the location you choose for your business will in the end determine whether you’ll succeed or fail.
The factors affecting business location that we’ll be looking at impact more on physical businesses than online businesses and this is because online businesses are able to leverage the internet to be virtually everywhere at the same time i.e. people from different continents can be able to access your online services at the same time.
Let’s now get to see which the factors influencing location of business are.
Factors Affecting Business Location #1: Infrastructure
You need to ensure that your business is located in an area where the infrastructure is able to support your business operations rather than hinder them i.e.
- The road network needs to be well established
- You need to have access to electricity
- Your business premises needs to be well secured etc.
Factors Affecting Business Location #2: Access To Raw Materials
Because it can be quite expensive in terms of time and transportation to have your business located far away from your source of raw materials, you should try to locate your business to as close to your raw materials as possible.
Factors Affecting Business Location #3: Access To Auxiliary Services
You need to have your business located in an area where you have access to services such as banks, insurance, security and other related services that can help you grow and run your business.
Factors Affecting Business Location #4: Access To Your Target Market
This is one of the most important factors affecting business location.
It’s very important to have your business located to as close to your target market as possible. Having your business located far away from your customers will see them shift to your competitors because it’ll be an inconvenience for them (time and money) to come to your business premises.
Factors Affecting Business Location #5: Access To Labor
Make sure that your business is located in an area where your staff and other members of your workforce have easy access to your business (i.e. their workplace) to ensure that they’re always on time for work.
You can even hire transportation for them to and fro to ensure your business runs smoothly (if you can afford it).
Factors Affecting Business Location #6: Room For Expansion
You need to be situated in a place where you can easily grow and expand your physical business location.
It would be tragic if your business grew to a level where you needed to physically expand your business but because you chose a small location that can’t handle your expansion, you’re forced to look for business premises away from your target market.
Factors Affecting Business Location #7: Government Policy
This is also one of the most important factors affecting business location that you ought to take into account.
You need to ensure that you’re located in a region where government policies don’t negatively impact on your business operations.
There are laws that can make running a business easy, manageable or even impossible, so be careful to pick a region where your business won’t encounter much resistance from the law of the land.
My Take On The Factors Affecting Business Location
The above factors affecting business location are only a small part of the bigger picture.
Although I might not be able to list all the factors affecting business location, I believe the above location facts have helped to shed some light on what you should be on the lookout for when choosing a location for your business.
It is also very important that you try as much as possible to locate your business in an area where your customers have easy access to your services. This is to increase your reliability to deliver plus you won’t incur a lot of expenses in terms of transportation.
It’s also good to remember that having your business located in an area where it’s convenient for most of your customers is one of the best ways to ensure that your business thrives in the marketplace. I do hope that the above factors affecting business location have helped to shed some light on this.
If you found value in the above post on the factors affecting business location, then please leave a comment below and don’t forget to share with others 🙂