Small business start up - how to choose the best location for your business

Even when you are starting up or thinking about starting up a business there are a number of practical considerations both short-term and long-term that are worth having in mind. They may not be hugely relevant when drawing plans up or making plans for the business, but they are issues that will very quickly develop and which some forethought will help you prepare for.

One of the questions very simply will be where is your business to be located. This raises the question of whether the business will be located in your own home or in a separate location where you will need business premises of some sort. Either situation is fine, but knowing what your needs are will help you prepare. It may be that you intend to start off the business or service based from home, with a view to moving into premises once the business is established. The value of thinking this through beforehand will enable you to prepare effectively so that when the situation arises you will be able to deal with it without having to spend a lot of time and effort researching it. There are many questions about what type of premises you need, but they will depend to a large extent on what type of business it is you're running. There are many government and local funding schemes available to business start-ups that may be of help when deciding what type promises to have.

The other question to have at the back of your mind at a very practical level is whether you are going to or want to employ other people and if so how many. Maybe if your business grows very quickly you will suddenly have a need to employ other people. You do not want to be in a position where you have to turn down business simply because there is too much of it for yourself to do on your own. Equally you don't want to say yes to everything because you're afraid of turning business down, which results in either you not being able to do the work or doing the work and not doing very well thereby damaging the reputation. The question of using other staff needs to be at the back of your mind in terms of how you plan to proceed if that becomes a reality. With that in mind think about whether you want to employ other people, use subcontractors or freelance staff, whether you want to employee trainees or an apprentice. Another alte
ative is to get to know other contractors whom you would be able to share the business with and possibly get reciprocal business from them as well.

Supplies are a really important question and issue for any business, especially one that is starting up. If you are promising a business or service to someone, then it is key that you are able to deliver when you say you will. If your service or product is dependent on third party suppliers you need to know they are going to be reliable and deliver what they say they will when they will. No customer is going to be impressed by you saying it is someone else's fault. Knowing what supplies you need, where you can get them from, and whether you need to carry stock of your own to guard against any delays from suppliers are important considerations. Carrying stock of your own supplies of your own is a good idea, but again dependent on you having premises available to keep stock, and also realising that it is essentially money tied up in stock that you may or may not be able to afford.

One of the questions running through all of this is how much you plan at the beginning and how much you plan as you go through the course of setting up the business. It is a good idea to have both a short and long-term plan at the beginning. This will give you a frame of reference to be aware of things as they develop or are likely to develop, and you will have a good idea as to what course of action you intend to take. Being aware of potential problems such as supplies or lack of supplies gives you the knowledge to plan ahead, and make plans for any contingency that may arise.