Follow this 5-step outline to help you profile and find just the right place to rent before opening your own practice or moving from your existing location. Fill this out as though it were a questionnaire.
Be sure that you identify your ideal client/market before starting your search. It won’t do you any good to have a mismatch between this and your location. You want to be sure that your ideal/client lives or works relatively close to the geographic location you choose.
1. Location, Location, Location
- Your home address:
- Driving time between your home and possible new location:
- Addresses of prominent business, university and major neighborhoods in your city/town:
- Driving time between your home and these locations:
2. From these geo points, develop a 20-minute circle detailing the initial Area of Operation. Use Google Maps to help you:
3. Inside the Area of Operation circle, look for and/or identify spaces:
- List of already existing massage/healing businesses (so we can determine if we are contesting for space):
- List of YMCA, Gyms, Yoga studios, Pilates studios, Dance studios or other fitness facilities:
- Retirement facilities and whether they are upscale or not:
4. Subjective Demographics
- What are the neighborhoods named inside the area:
- Who lives in each – money, ages, lifestyle:
- What are the neighborhoods that have low socio/economic conditions – unless your business plan calls for directly serving under served areas as a social entrepreneurial venture, we avoid these:
5. After the planning comes the next stage:
- Drive around the area.
- Walk the neighborhoods that seem a good fit, after driving the area.
You may not have to find a place after this process. The place will find you…..and you may have to do this a couple of times before your “right place intuition” kicks in.
