The location of your business captures a great first impression and tells a lot about your brand. In today’s businesses perception, these two qualities make a significant impact on the success of a business. With small businesses still struggling with the aftermath of the pandemic, they might not know that the company’s location plays an essential role in its success.
Options for business locations
In the past, most entrepreneurs would rent a permanent workstation. These workstations or places were expensive and involved long-term leases. For many entrepreneurs using these locations, they went unused for years. Another issue that came was the issue with business expansion. When the owner wanted to expand the business, he had to pay more. As many narrow options were available for entrepreneurs, most of them used their homes to run their businesses. While it gave them the freedom to pay costly rents, it has many disadvantages. Home offices restrict your professional exposure, and you might feel isolated and unproductive. Moreover, putting your home address as your official business address can propose many safety risks. Lastly, it gives an unprofessional image to your customers, and they might find it suspicious.
Increase in virtual offices and coworking
Before the pandemic, many business owners and entrepreneurs used coworking spaces and virtual meeting rooms as their regular offices. However, with the pandemic arrival, all businesses switched to virtual and hybrid work arrangements. Studies indicate that many business owners do not want to return to their traditional offices and working methods now that everything is reopening. They do not want their employees to spend hours walking to a physical office every week, working 9 to 5 for things that can be done and managed online.
Moreover, most business owners are dissolving their physical offices or their portions and switching to the in-demand virtual offices and a virtual mailing address. These hybrid working methods have allowed employees to collaborate with one and other and attend meetings in-person and in the corporate or virtual workspace while staying in their homes.
Why does location matter in business?
Regardless of your workplace arrangement, you being a solopreneur, having a home office, and working 24 hours virtually – the location of your business is essential and still matters. Firstly, you MUST have a physical location to show your customers the authenticity of your business. It will win their trust and give them a sense of dependency. Second, the area you pick for your company reflects and represents your brand. Here are some of the key factors that both solopreneurs and small business leaders need to consider:
- Compliance and regulations
Using your home address as your business address can be problematic for many reasons. For starters, the impression it gives to your audience counts. When business owners or entrepreneurs associate their business with a home address, it reflects it as a minor in the industry and lacks professionalism. The second issue is that business owners have to face the restrictions place by property owners on running a business from their homes. State laws and contracts can prohibit residents from running a business from their homes. Lastly, the address under which you register your business is always public, affecting your safety. Business owners register for a virtual address for LLC, which serves as a third-party registered agent, to avoid issues like these.
Business Tax Rates:
Another thing to keep in mind when selecting the location of your business is that it will decide tax bills at the end of every year. Many different taxes are involved in this – from franchise taxes to income taxes, to sales taxes, to gross receipts tax.
The location cost:
You are a solopreneurs, a startup, or a small business owner – renting a permanent office in a professional building can be highly costly. If you do not pick an ideal commercial area, your brand may not catch the eyes of your customers. Moreover, your investors or guests might not find it easy to visit your office. These expensive offices mostly do not have meeting rooms or adequate equipment to run a decent meeting. In such cases, working in a coworking space with a virtual business address is a great alternative. These spaces have well-furnished meeting rooms, beverages, and administrative services with a minimal rental amount.
Hybrid work environment:
One of the outcomes of the pandemic is that workers have accomplished healthy boundaries of working from home. Therefore, they want to retain this possibility to work from home in a timely manner. They wish you collaborate with their colleagues but also have an option to work from the comfort of their home when possible. This approach is practiced by many businesses now. Therefore, businesses in large locations want to choose a location that is close to where their employees live.
