The location of your business plays a significant role in how lucrative it will be. Even a top-notch company with stellar service/product will fail if it is situated in an area with too much competition or not enough demand.
Business owners often have the big city vs. small town dilemma. In this article, we will compare the two and try to determine where the best place to start your business is.
Big City Vs Small Town: Where To Start A Business
Big City
From a business perspective, every big city looks like it has a ton of potential. If you plan on starting a new business, it only makes sense to engage as big of a market as possible. But, while this sounds good on paper, there are potential downsides to consider.
Upsides
In the big city vs. small town dilemma, most people choose the former without much hesitation. The bigger the city, the more it has to offer. Even a superficial analysis will show you how variant neighborhoods can be.
From upscale communities brimming with well-off families to business-oriented areas with young professionals. Each neighborhood has its own market. And, if you are smart, you can pick the one that benefits your business the most.
Apart from this, it is much easier to connect with other businesses if you are situated in a big city. This is especially useful if you run a B2B company and plan to support a substantial number of businesses. But, even if you don’t, the vicinity of other companies can prove quite helpful. If you are not satisfied with one, you can easily find their competitors and work with them.
Downsides
There are two significant downsides to moving your business to a big city. Competition and high costs. Namely, the fact that there are a lot of companies within a big city also means that you will have to face competitors. This can be difficult to tackle unless you provide a niche service/product.
After all, all the successful competitors in your city have already established brand recognition within the local market. So, not only will you have to provide a service/product that is comparable to them, but you’ll likely have to make some improvements. Either when it comes to the quality or when it comes to the cost.
The second downside to keep in mind is relatively straightforward. Namely, big cities tend to be expensive. When it comes to rent and utilities, you are usually looking at considerable investments. Depending on where you wish to situate your business, your rent can be multiple times larger than it would be in a smaller town.
This, as you can imagine, puts a lot of pressure on you to start earning as soon as possible. And, unfortunately, most businesses cannot answer this pressure without considerable investment.
You need to have stellar marketing if your business is to take off soon enough to start yielding profit. Therefore, while a big city promises considerable revenue, it also comes with its own challenges.
Small Town
When you consider a small town for your business, you usually have a specific town in mind. You are either planning to move to a smaller town to see if you can make a living, or you feel that there is a need for your business and a general lack of competition.
Whatever the case may be, small towns can be surprisingly lucrative. But, it is vital to understand the local market and see whether your business has a place in it.
Upsides
Until you’ve experienced it, it can be hard to quantify the value of not having competition. If you are the only service or product provider within a small town, you don’t have to worry about marketing or competitive prices.
Instead, you can focus on the quality of your business and the service/product that you provide. As you can imagine, this increased focus can be quite beneficial. The more you work on it, the better your businesses will become.
The second upside is that both living and running a business in a small town is cheaper. Not only do you need a smaller budget to start your business, but you also need less revenue to keep it open. This lowers the amount of pressure, which gives you more room to experiment and optimize.
Downsides
If your business isn’t necessary for the small town you’ve moved into, you are pretty much done. In big cities, you can always count on someone discovering you.
You can find an audience even if your business is a niche, like dog grooming or micro-brewing. Meanwhile, you simply cannot count on the populace of a small town to keep your business afloat.
Secondly, living in a small town can be pretty tedious. If you are used to living in larger cities, a small town can easily feel suffocating. Unfortunately, it is rather tricky to remotely run a business, especially if you have little experience doing so. Therefore, you really need to like living in that small town if you plan on starting a business in it.
Where’s The Best Place To Start Your Business?
With this in mind, how are you supposed to know where the best place to start your business is? Well, there is no straightforward answer. Aspects like:
- Budget
- The nature of your business
- The amount of research you’ve done
- Your marketing plan
- Your living situation
All of these play a role in determining an answer to the big city vs. small town dilemma. It is always a good idea to try and learn from your competition and see where and how they are able to run their business.
Since online shopping is more advanced than ever, smaller towns seem like better choices. Nevertheless, it is paramount that you do as much research as possible before making your decision.
Read Also:
- How to Choose a Right Business Location
- 6 Proven Marketing Tips For Moving & Relocation Companies in 2022
- 10 Best Cities To Start A Business
Author Bio: Rob Riddell worked as relocation coordination for over 15 years. He now focuses on writing helpful articles for companies like Michael Brooks and providing valuable insight into relocation in general.
