The Perfect Location: Choosing a Launch Pad for Your Startup

When it comes to launching a new business, the location you choose can potentially be critical to the success of your venture.

Business district

There are many different types of commercial real estate on the market and numerous different locations to choose from too. If you are a tech business for instance, you might decide on positioning yourself in an area that is renowned for startups of this kind, or it could be that you want to take advantage of some tax breaks to help the finances.

Motivated by profit

The bottom line is that your startup will have to be profitable or it is not going to turn into a growing and successful business, which is why the location you choose can be important.

Keeping your overheads low in the early years will help to plough money earned back in to the business and help it to grow. If you choose a smart location that looks impressive but has a rental cost and overheads that are equally impressive when they stand out on your ledger, you could be hampering your chances of success in the early years.

Make sure you do your sums when you are looking at a business premises and don’t just calculate the rental payments on their own, as there utilities, taxes, insurances and maintenance costs which all have to be paid in addition to the rent.

Retail space

If you are looking for office space or need somewhere to base your manufacturing business, you will perhaps not be as concerned about location as you might be if you are setting up in retail.

If you are going to be trying to attract customers to your business premises, location is a key element in your decision and customers will want somewhere that is convenient to get to and attracts them in when they are going past.

This is a tough call sometimes for new retail business ventures, as they want somewhere accessible and attractive so that they can generate the turnover from plenty of customers coming into their premises, but the best locations very often command a hefty rent, which can be challenging for a fledgling business.

Taxes

Different states have varying levels of local taxes and this can have a positive or detrimental impact on your business, deciding on where you decide to set up in business.

Some areas have no state income tax, with Washington being one example, whereas other states can add as much as 9% of taxes to your flat federal tax bill.

Make sure you take a look at what local taxes and if you have a choice of where you set up your business, you might want to consider an area that offers the best incentives.

There could also be tax breaks available for certain startups, so it often pays to make some enquiries to see if you might get some financial assistance in return for employing local people or if you are setting up a qualifying type of business.

Hiring staff

Another important consideration that can sometimes be overlooked when setting up a new business, is the quality and availability of employees to work for you.

If you set up your business in a convenient location and offer a reasonably attractive salary and benefits, you will probably have few difficulties in enticing staff to come and work for you.

Starting a new business and assessing the factors that should influence the premises that you choose, needs to include a comparison between areas and some groundwork to see how existing local employers fare in being able to attract and retain good employees.

Transport infrastructure

Even if you are not setting up a retail business where location can so influential on your potential success, where you trade from can make a difference for a number of other reasons as well.

Retail and professional services will always be looking to set up in a convenient location where customers can visit them easily and conveniently, but even if you are setting up a manufacturing company or some type of service business, your location can still be a factor.

A good transport infrastructure and ease of access for suppliers will make it easier for goods to be delivered on time and when you need them and of course, it also needs to be fairly easy for employees to get to you if you are going to attract the right staff, which is why location should still be a consideration regardless of your nature of business.

There are many things that combine to create a successful business and location is certainly one of those components.

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