Scouting a Business Location

As the Chinese businessmen in the country say, “In business location is everything.” How should a business be located?

Nature of business is directly proportional to its location. Business in the Philippines is informally “zoned” as follows: commercial, community, sidewalk, or stocky. Commercial businesses have malls and shopping complexes as their business location. Community businesses like groceries, marts, hardware and sari-sari stores, have street corners or main roads in communities as their business location.

Sidewalk businesses like selling in small, makeshift stalls, or kiosks, or carts have byways and pathways as business location---or even spread-out mats right on overpasses---which the MMDA abhors, and which we, therefore, don’t want. A new trend in business in the Philippines is being a stocky---a networking business term which means one’s got stocks of marketable items at home and sells them through word-of-mouth. So the home’s the business location.

After knowing the proper zone or area where one’s business location is supposed to be, the next task is to know where “exactly” the business site is to be. In doing a business in the Philippines, we’re going by the adage that location is everything in business.

Here are tips on where exactly a business location should be placed.

Human traffic. Check if the place is a major route of human traffic at least at 3 major times of the day---morning rush hour, noon rush hour, and afternoon rush hour. Some ideal business locations get heavy human traffic 16 hours a day. In this case, sometimes night shift work is needed to take full advantage of the human traffic flow. To be sure of human traffic, schedule 1 to 2 days observing it in the vicinity. Go there at certain times of the day to study human traffic and do surveys around. Ask other businesses how they’re doing and what seems to be the problem, if any.

Next is settlement of the rent issue. Say, for a small 3X3 stall the usual rent is P5,000 monthly. To beat the rent one has to make at least P200 a day. But we also want to make profits---not just pay rent to fatten up the landlord, so it’s got to be at least P300 a day. But we have to pay taxes, annual permits, overhead expenses, etc. Meeting these needs make for a good location.

A good business location when doing a business in the Philippines is one that is strategically located to meet expense needs and make lucrative profits.

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2 comments on “Scouting a Business Location”

  1. internet cafe is good but i need more advice please i need a good business of small capital like 100,000.00,pesos in good location preferably.

  2. i'm an ofw planning to start a business in d philippines.
    actually, my 1st idea was a small poultry business somewhere in cavite, laguna or quezon.
    2nd idea is a RTW shop in one of d malls.
    can u pls advice me on d best locations 2 scout by email?
    i'd appreciate ur reply.
    thanks