When a business is expanding, whether in an existing market or entering a new market, there are key steps to follow while developing your companies expansion plan. Our team can help you mold you expansion plan and implement a successful store positioning strategy.
STEP 1 | Creating Standards/Guidelines for New Locations
Does your business already have guidelines for new locations? Examples would be basic/minimum demographic requirements, traffic counts, preferable property types, etc.
The first step is to help you define and create standard guidelines for new potential locations. By comparing the demographics (population, age, income) of an existing, successful locations we can set parameters/guidelines to follow when looking for new potential locations. Once these standard guidelines are in place it will be much easier to identify locations that meet or succeed the standards to approve a location.
STEP 2 | Identifying New Markets
Now that we have guidelines in place we can begin to identify new markets for expansion. When your company is planning to expand you may already have a few markets, sub-markets, geographical areas in mind. During the process of defining market areas we will examine crucial economic factors, geographical and physical attributes, the size of the market, and begin examining more in depth demographics.
STEP 3 | Determine Growth Potential
Once we have identified a new market that offers growth opportunities and also match your companies guidelines we will begin determining the growth potential. During this step in the process we will study and analyze specific demographics that will provide a better understanding of how many store locations the market can support. Furthermore, we can begin to break the overall market into smaller sub-markets such as by corridor (major highways).
STEP 4 | Find Potential Locations
The next step in the process dives directly into the site selection process. We have created guidelines for new locations, defined and analyzed the new markets, and determined growth potential, now we have to identify potential locations. Using commercial real estate property databases such as Loopnet and Costar we can identify available locations. We will also drive the market, check on available locations and begin studying each potential location in-depth.
