Remember back a couple of weeks ago when Spring felt like it was on its way? The mean average daily temperature was above 0 and the whole world seemed to have a fantastic melting quality to it.
The kids felt it too. My two little girls were so inspired by the sunshine and warmth that they dragged a sheet of plywood out of our back shed, across a 4 foot deep field of snow, to rest by our back door. Using a small school paint set and a couple of brushes, they produced the most impressive black and yellow lemonade sign announcing, "Glasses of lemonade 25 cents each." It would have been cruel for me to suggest that Tim Hortons had the frozen lemonade-thing already wrapped up or that summer was more than a few months away. I kept those thoughts inside my head.
Instead, I argued that their price point was far too low to actually cover the cost of producing the lemonade but they were completely disinterested with my point of view. Instead, they both seemed much more eager to discuss which location would serve their business interests.
The end of our driveway, in a rural area of Prince George, would not have enough traffic to support the stand. The end of our road didn't have great parking so that wouldn't work either. Then, it was my oldest who suggested that the closest set of community mailboxes would offer them the best location. Not only did the mailbox site have a safe pull off, but there was lots of traffic, and people had to actually get out of their car to retrieve their mail and could therefore be simultaneously subjected to the girls' verbal sales pitch. Good reasoning for a 9 year old.
A similar logic can be applied to the process of identifying the best location for most retail businesses. Never underestimate the importance of choosing the right location for your business. While lease rates and other costs are important, considerable thought should go into identifying how your customers will interact with your business. Will it help to choose a location with high visibility? Is a high traffic location better for you and more convenient for customers? Access to your business from the closest main arteries as well as parking concerns should also carry weight.
A revealing exercise to go through before choosing a location is to pick up a road map and plot the locations of all your competitors on the map. This is particularly useful when the products or services you offer are based on convenience. Think of a dry-cleaning business for example. Customers like to drop off their garments to a dry-cleaner on the way to somewhere else, usually along a regular route like on the way to work. If the map shows that there are no dry-cleaners within several blocks of a high traffic area that may be a good site for a future location.
And finally, delivery vehicle access may be important for certain types of retail business and security issues for the business, employees and customers should also be considered.
In the case of my daughter's lemonade stand, whose grand-opening may be delayed due to sub-zero temperatures, location was the primary consideration before all else. I'm not sure that the zoning will allow for it but good luck to the bylaw enforcement officer who chooses to pick a bone with a determined 9 year old entrepreneur. Until next week, stay in the black and keep coming back.
