Where do you want to be in business? Could it be where you live? Your local shops may not always seem the most obvious location but consider:
◆ A long journey to work every day takes up valuable time. Especially in the early days, when you will need to be in the shop early and stay late. An hour each way in the car could have been the day’s bookwork and orders done.
If your home town is a holiday resort:
◆ Will the local population provide sufficient trade to keep you going out of season?
◆ Could you afford to close?
◆ Would your lease allow you to close?
◆ Could you use the quiet part of the year constructively, say to travel abroad sourcing and importing stock?
Think about where you go to shop for your groceries, clothes, household goods, furniture and furnishings, presents, sports kit and so on. Ask your local family and friends where they prefer to go. If none of you shop locally for one specific type of goods there could be a gap in the market and the need for that type of shop in the town. If everybody you know prefers to travel for all of their shopping needs, your local High Street could be in need of more regeneration than you will be able to give it single-handedly by opening a shop there.
What am I selling and to whom? Am I a specialist, niche market, mostly mail order or do I need high volumes of sales?
The parade of shops at the end of the street could provide:
◆ low rental;
◆ customer parking;
◆ easy access;
◆ street frontage;
◆ back-room workshop or storage facilities to a business that does not rely
mainly on passers-by, impulse sales or high volume trading.
This would be:
Good for a specialist antique clock repairer advertised in Yellow Pages, the horological magazines and on the Internet, distributing spare parts by mail order, with a workshop in the back room and parking outside for customers to deliver and collect repair items.
Bad for fashion jewellery, greetings cards or other goods where a busy location is needed to give high volumes of passing trade, often buying on impulse.
