When it comes to establishing and growing a successful business, one crucial factor that cannot be overlooked is the importance of outlet location strategy. However, what is the importance of location in business?
The choice of location can significantly impact a business’s success and its ability to attract customers, generate revenue, and remain competitive in the market. Choosing the right business location ensures easy access to the target market. A prime location with high visibility ensures that a business’s brand and signage are easily noticed by passersby, increasing the chances of attracting potential customers. You can find other reasons here. However, in this article, we will explore eight keys you must know to define your business location.
1. Connect with Your Local Laundry Equipment Distributor
Whether you have a location in mind, or need help finding one, your first step is to contact your distributor. Not only does your distributor know your market and understand the characteristics of a great location, they hunt potential laundry sites every day. Plus, they will work alongside you to develop your laundry from start to finish.
2. Look for Anchor Stores
It’s always a plus to locate a laundry near an anchor store, such as a major grocery store, or in a shopping centre. Obviously, these anchor stores draw customers.
3. High Traffic Density
Seek a location on a street with dense traffic for greater visibility and more potential customers. A lower speed limit or traffic light slows down passersby so they have more time to notice your store. A lower speed limit also makes it easy for customers to enter and exit the facility.
4. Adequate Parking
Ample and accessible parking is critical. It’s important to make access easier for people who do not live nearby or who use vehicles to get to or near your store location. An easy entrance and exit are critical. Try to find a building that stands alone. This allows you to offer customers plenty of parking, multiple entrances and you can control all of the signage outside of the store. Finding an outlet location in a small strip mall is also a solid option as customers will have parking right outside of your store and the surrounding stores are already driving people to the area. Remember, if a person is going to load up a week’s worth of laundry in the car, and you don’t have proper parking, they will drive on to the next laundry.
5. Safe and Visible
While it may seem obvious, it is essential your vended laundry location is safe and visible. Attendants, bright lighting and security systems help customers feel safe while inside the laundry. Be sure outlet location is also safe where visibility is good. Positioning your laundry to maximise its visibility is important. Consider locating it on a corner between two streets and maximising window frontage to allow passersby to see inside.
6. Competitive Analysis
Look around your location for competitors. Determine how far away they are, how they are equipped, the services they offer, and how much they charge. A good distributor will put together a competitive analysis to see if a selected location remains viable.
Other coin laundries in your area are not the only competition. You must consider residential washers and dryers and apartment buildings with laundry facilities in addition to laundromats as primary competition. The questions you need to answer are who are my competitors and where are they located? Answer those questions and follow the breakdown on how to combat all types of competitors.
- Washers and dryers in the home: One way to advertise this market is showcase the extra-large washers and dryers delivering speed and convenience to wash heavy blankets, rugs and comforters.
- Apartments with laundry facilities: This might sound like a nice amenity to tenants at first but many realise the laundry facilities are small and filled with small capacity washers and dryers in addition to the frustration when you open up a machine just to find someone else’s clothes. Laundromats can exploit these issues by offering a clean and comfortable environment with efficient, easy-to-use machines and everyday conveniences like free Wi-Fi.
- Other coin laundries: Plenty of laundromat owners want to be the only store in the area but this isn’t realistic and can also be a sign that the location isn’t a great fit. Competition can be a good thing when every store in the market is populated enough that each store is able to survive and thrive. The best way to separate yourself from the competition is offering a cleaner store, nicer facilities and potentially better promotions.
7. Dense Population and Rental-Rich
Look for neighbourhoods with a lot of old style homes or apartment buildings. An area with dense population and a high percentage of renters is a positive. There are more people to draw from, and renters in apartment complexes don’t typically have the best washers and dryers which can frustrate tenants enough to visit a nearby laundromat. Remember, homeowners can also add to the success of your laundry outlet location if you’re offering wash/dry/fold and have large-capacity machines.
Pro Tip: Look online for the amenities offered by nearby rentals homes or apartments.
Your distributor will run a demographic analysis; it will show a population’s age range, socioeconomic circumstances, whether they rent or own, and languages spoken. All of these play into the services you’ll provide, and how you’ll ultimately equip and market your laundry.
8. Location Cost
Depending on the town or city, the costs of goods, real estate, rent and utilities vary. If you’re renting a building to house your laundry, your distributor can help you with lease negotiation to ensure your laundry metrics will fall into place. There are no guarantees, but a well-established distributor should have plenty of references to back up what they project. A viability study, conducted by your distributor, will help determine when you might recover your investment.
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