Successfully placed!

Congratulations! You are really doing well with your deep dive into planning, making conscious decisions, sorting through a series of decisions, and coming up with your strategy for starting a business. It might feel a bit overwhelming, or maybe a bit tedious and time-consuming, but I hope it brings you clarity and narrows your focus! What you are doing now is ensuring your success and the ability to sustain your business. You are not jumping without thinking. Actively participating in creating a process is a lot of work and will really help keep you moving in an organized and common sense way.

One of the things to consider is where do you want to do business. What are some of your options?

WHERE would you personally like to do business?

• from home with unlimited hours (to meet a variety of time zones or because your life and work are intertwined by choice)
• of your home, knowing that you are a part-time resident of various places rather than a year-round residence
• from your home with standard business hours
• from an office but traveling to clients, for example as an insurance consultant or broker or financial advisor
• of a retail environment: your store or restaurant, for example)
• from the field (think drilling wells or training horses)
• from a warehouse or manufacturing environment

WHERE would you like your customers to be?

• in cyberspace, buying online from you
• Only at your local market (i.e. someone who comes directly to your store to buy)
• In regional markets
• Only in national markets
• In a mix of national and international markets
• Alone in a foreign country, or anywhere abroad

WHERE would you like your clients to work?

• Are you selling directly to individual consumers (B2C)?
• Are you selling only to other companies (B2B)?
• Are you selling to companies in a certain income category, just Fortune 500 companies, for example?
• Are you selling only to non-profit organizations?
• Are you selling only to schools or government entities or religious organizations?

WHERE can you access what’s important for starting a small business and what’s important for new businesses?

• how many patents are issued per 10,000 inhabitants (the national average is 1.8)
• Which is the cost of living and can find access to affordable and/or flexible rental space (the Council for Community and Economic Research calculates cost-of-living ratios specifically for the self-employed)
• You can find creative talent and/or a skilled labor (what is the density of universities and/or technical schools and community colleges with job training programs)
• Is there a density of small businesses and/or incubators? with a track record of creating start-ups
• Is there access to private seed capital and/or a history of such funds available to startups
• Is there a state income tax?
• Which is the tax-deductible qualification
• Which are the local zoning laws (including parking regulations) and allow or promote co-working space
• Are there regular meetings or networking events for start-up minded people?
• Are there financial incentives and are there mentoring opportunitysome of which are often provided by business incubators or business accelerator programs
• Is there access to low interest business loans
• Is there access to government contracts
• What is the corporate tax rate?
• There is tax credits available promoting certain industries or certain geographic locations

The fact is, new businesses are starting every day and even in places that can’t boast of having everything on the list above. If you are willing to move and are interested in moving, you can increase your chances of success by making the decision to move to a place that meets most of the considerations listed above. I am very fond of Beaufort and believe there are many attributes here that will contribute to its success, chief among which is the quality of the venue. My personal bias is that living in Beaufort, South Carolina, a community where people you don’t know wave as they walk by or wave as they pass, with people slowing down to let you walk your dog across the street or stop for a chat in line at the grocery store, even if things slow down, a place that celebrates our Gullah influences, our French beginnings, our military presence and sacrifice, and a place that provides beautiful flowers and swings for living here be relaxing and visually pleasing – means living in a place where you are reminded that being an entrepreneur is just one component of your life, a life that is interconnected with family, friends and community. And also, The more of us who commit to being a part of the job creation and entrepreneurial scene here in Beaufort, the more vibrant our city will be!

Back

• DO Keep in mind constantly that planning to start a business is a process that requires you to lay the foundation. Keep deliberately moving through this decision-making process to create a business that meets your needs and lifestyle.
• DO Consider your flexibility, or lack thereof, when considering where you want to live when you start your business and as your business grows. If you start a business with a physical location, you have made a commitment to stay. That’s neither a negative nor a positive, just make sure you’ve decided beforehand that you’re happy with that result.
• DO consider whether traveling is something you want or can accommodate. A good friend recently told me that he logged over 200,000 flight miles last year and that he has 9-year-old twins at home. He loves his work and is very successful, and he loves his family. But it takes a lot of energy to travel that much, and everyone makes very real sacrifices because of the type of business he does. I also know of people who limit their travel by limiting the frequency and destination of their trips. But they continue to buy trips to places they would have traveled even without a business. Having a business purpose for visiting their favorite places is a real plus for them on several levels!

NOT TO DO

• Whose choosing a new location to start a business based on the false pretense that the grass is always greener elsewhere. If moving makes sense after doing your research and laying the groundwork, then move on. But don’t go somewhere new just to get away from your current dissatisfaction. Problems have a bad habit of traveling with you, so it’s best to fix things here first.
• Whose minimize the impact of a move on your family members. If you’re not single, consider the ‘later spouse’ issue: are there things your ‘partner’ can do for work and play that you’ll enjoy enough to make the move satisfying for both of you? These days we are often spread out quite far geographically, but create considerations when there is a need to be close to elderly parents or a desire to be close to young grandchildren. Don’t forget to consider the big picture when deciding on the best location for your new business and its success.

ACTION ELEMENTS:

1. Sit back and review this article. Write down where you ideally want to work from, where you anticipate your customers will come from, where you anticipate most of your sales will come from, and where there are resources your business will need to be successful.
2. Think about where you spend most of your time now and where you would like to spend your time: in one place all year round, in one place for the summer and in a different place for the winter, currently not tied to any one place and interested in visiting or living briefly in as many places as possible? Also think about where your family members are now and determine if their circumstances will affect yours in the next 1-2 years and in the next 5-10 years, and think about how this might affect your choice of where (and how) ) wants your business to operate. Depending on the type of business you choose and its success, you can create greater freedom through greater flexibility and finances. If these are your goals, make sure you are clear about the result you want and understand if the business you propose to start will actually give you this result.