BCBusiness

January 2015 Best Cities for Work in B.C.

With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.

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JANUARY 2015 BCBusiness 27 pete RYAN intel S ay the word three times and the ideal location still won't magically appear. Businesses need more than just the right address to know where to set up shop. Choose right and clients will beat a path to your door, sales will pick up and the competition may even pack up and leave. Pick the wrong location and no one knows your business exists. Collier International associate vice president Derek May; John Lecky, principal at Avison Young; Michael Olshansky with Maurice Sporting Goods; and real estate marketing guru Bob Rennie offer some advice on how to know if the location is right. understand your customers' needs Bob Rennie recounts the case of a recent development in Mission that wanted to brand itself to new homeowners as Mayberry, the fictional small town setting for the Andy Griffith Show. "No one under 30 knows what Mayberry is. There's what we think we are and what we really are," says Rennie. Pick a location that shows you understand your customers' needs: "If you're opening up a yoga studio, is there a juice bar next door or a burger place? If you're Louis Vuitton, you should be where Hermès is located." The right location allows you to attract employees—and spy on competitors Your employees are going to want a good coffee shop, a place to eat lunch and reliable transportation. "Remember, people will be spending more time at work than anywhere else. At the beginning of the day, are they going to arrive feeling good—and leave at the end of their day not stressed about the commute?" says Derek May. For these reasons, many industries cluster around certain downtown districts, such as technology startups in Yaletown and Gastown. Being in the hub gives you certain advantages, including poaching from a competitor, says May: "Staff there are used to the commute and the area and won't have to drastically change their lives to work for you." Don't pick a location that makes your suppliers and customers go, Huh? Michael Olshansky with Maurice Sporting Goods Inc. already had a warehouse in Mississauga when he realized that he needed another, in Metro Vancouver, for strategic I t ' S y o u r b u S I n e S S The Sweet Spot How to pick the perfect location for your business by Petti Fong R e a l e s t a t e 01/15 y 2 8 v i s u a l l e a R n i n g 3 1 C a l e n D a R 3 2 O F F i C e s Pa C e W

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