Competition

There are two schools of thought on the subject of competition: one is to get as close to your competition and let them know you’re gunning for them. The other is to stay as far away as you can!

Your competition may decide to spend money and resources to bring clients to your area and you can stand to directly benefit from the crowd just as many restaurants and retail outlets do.

For example, retail store may spend a lot of money on promoting a new location and if your store is nearby people, although they may initially come to that store, may see your store and be intrigued enough to come pay your business a visit. If you’re choosing to open your restaurant business at a location with many restaurants, then be prepared for competition because customers will have a lot of options available to them. But, if you’ve had all of the other restaurants food, and you are sure that your food is head-and-shoulders better than theirs, and you’re confident that eventually the customers in the area will prefer your food, then you may want to open in a restaurant heavy area. Or you may also realize another benefit of a restaurant heavy area is that people may go there, unsure of what they want to eat, and may choose your restaurant. On the other hand, for many manufacturing companies, access to highways, a good labour market, and closeness to suppliers are more important factors to them than being close or far to their competitors.

Doing demographic research is important for customer-related reasons but it may also help in other areas. For example, if your company needs part-time employees that can be trained for relatively high or medium skilled work, you may want to consider locating an office near a university. Students will be either travelling to the university or living there, making it easier for them to commute and be available; and many students often look for part-time work when they’re not at school.

In any case, it’s important to do thorough research of an area’s demography and competition in order to have a solid understanding of what that location would mean for your business.

 By: Aziz Amiri