Choosing The Right Location For Your Franchise Business

For a brick-and-mortar business, having a great location is no doubt one of the contributing factors for success. But locations could have a subjective perspective to it — while a location could be great for certain types of businesses, it could be a nightmare for others. So how do you decide on an appropriate location?

Related: Does Franchising Work? 

Consider Your Customers

First and foremost, you have to understand who are going to be your customers. Even if the location has impressive footfall, it really wouldn’t matter much if your target market makes up a small portion of the human traffic. Ultimately, it’s not the location that’s really important because what you should really be after are the customers. By figuring out the demographic nature of your target market, you will have a clearer indication about whether securing a particular location makes sense.

Consider The Competition

Typically, when a competitor makes a successful sale to a customer, it probably means you won’t be having that same consumer as a customer anytime soon. But this is also the same for your competitors if you get the customer instead. In short, the more competition you have around, the more you have to fight to earn the customer’s business. With profits (or even survivability) at stake, competition for customers could turn into a free-for-all fight. Finding out who could potentially be your competitor in the area would allow you to sidestep any fight for market share that you weren’t prepared to get involved in.

On the other hand, having lots of competition around might not necessarily be a bad thing. If the culture of the area is set up in a way where retailers with similar offerings are grouped together, this might be a great way to let the local community know that you’re in business.

Consider The Infrastructure

The main consideration here is perhaps accessibility. What public transportation methods are in place to help your customers reach you? Will there be enough car park facilities? Does the way roads or pavements are constructed lead to inconvenience? These are just some of the initial considerations you should examine in order to determine whether such issues could be a concern for you.

However, this is tagged to knowing who your customers are. As an example, if your target market consists of young teenagers, the focus on public transportation would probably take precedence over the need for parking spaces. But if you are targeting the affluent professional, car park facilities would likely become a decisive criterion instead.

Consider Potential Changes That Could Happen

While this could be something that could be out of your control, you could do your part and try to find out as much as you can about the area. For example, try to find out if there is any nearby construction work that is being planned during the term of your lease agreement. The worst-case scenario is for construction work to commence during your operating hours, where noise and dust makes patronizing your business an undesirable experience for customers.

Another point to consider is whether any new shopping strips or malls are being planned within the area. New shopping options could mean more competition that will push customers away from you, or it could also easily mean more complementary products or services that will bring more footfall to the over all area instead. It could go both ways.

Consider The Franchisor’s Advice

A major perk of joining a franchise system is that you can bank on the franchisor’s experience. This includes learning vital information about what points towards a successful business location for the brand. Most often, the franchisor will have some sort of location selection checklist that lists brand-specific characteristics, highlighting desirable conditions for conducting business. Besides, the franchisor has every motivation to help you find an ideal location that will work because at the end of the day, your franchise business’ performance will have an impact on their bottom line.