Something for all business owners to think about is how they position themselves in the marketplace. I am not talking strictly from a branding and marketing point of view, but I am talking about your physical location. A great for instance is an old project of mine,Lucky Greens Mini Golf (yes back in the day I thought I could become the mini golf king of the Middle Kingdom).

Here was the problem, we knew that our first wave of customers, our low hanging fruit would be expat families, but we also knew that our second wave of customers would come from the growing middle class families of Shanghai. If you are keen to the Shanghai geography and demographic layout, you will quickly identify the dilemma we faced. Where to place the mini golf facility?

Well, we opted for the monstrous Cloud Nine Mall adjacent to Zhong Shan Park. This was to become the “new center” of Shanghai. For long term growth it was brilliant. It was at the intersection of three major metro lines, over twenty bus lines, and dozens of apartment complexes within a ten minute walk. But, it wasn’t convenient for our low hanging fruits. The expats were living far off in the hinterlands of MinHang or JinQiao in Pudong. We heard it from day one from these customers, “if you had just put it out by our home in JiQiao we would come every weekend”, “why did you put it here?”

So we were stuck between a rock and hard place. We had already put all of  our investment into this location with the intention of opening the second location in one of these expat compounds. Where we went wrong was creating a “destination-location” that could not easily be accessed by our first wave of customers, the expat-base. We closed up shop on Valentines Day 2007.

I see the same mistakes being made over and over again. Let’s have a look at Dunkin’ Donuts recent entry into Shanghai. Dowtown locations, perfect for the business crowd. But the locations they have chosen are just out of that 5-10min walking radius most office workers are willing to forgoe during lunch-breaks or smoke breaks. There business is most definitely not flourishing like they had presumed. Some of you may remeber “Frankies Italian Restuarant” on Fenyang Lu. One block off of Nanjing or Beijing Lu, but a million miles away from walk-by traffic.

Then there are places like “Pier 39″, just below my office on JinXian Lu (probably never heard of this small street), but the business is booming in this mini-cafe, becuase it sits on a street with a mix of dining and shopping experiences. It is a “known” destination, and gets considerable walk-by traffic. After two or so months of operation, you cannot reserve a table on Friday and Saturday nights.

Moral to this story is NOT location, location, location. But, IS first learn what type of location your business needs to be in, and then seek out the real estate to assist your business in becoming that location.