How to Choose Business Premises: 12 Criteria for the Location Decision
Location is the one decision a business cannot undo. You can change the product, adjust the price, replace staff; but if you signed for the wrong site, you pay for that mistake every month until the lease ends.
In Turkey the decision is harder because leases run long, deposits are large and neighbourhoods change fast. A street that works today may lose its traffic to a new mall or a road change.
This guide gives twelve criteria to score any site, three field measurements anyone can do, and the priorities that change by sector.
Why the Location Decision Is So Critical
Because it fixes two things at once: the cost base and the customer profile. Rent is the largest fixed cost for most shops, and the people who walk past are the people you will sell to.
A cheap site with the wrong customers costs more than an expensive site with the right ones. The score below is designed to make that visible before signing.
Twelve Criteria: Score the Site
- Foot traffic at your opening hours, not at lunchtime on a Saturday.
- Visibility from the main pedestrian flow.
- Parking or public transport within two minutes.
- Direct competitors within 300 metres.
- Complementary businesses nearby that bring your customer.
- Rent as a share of realistic monthly revenue, ideally under fifteen percent.
- Deposit size and indexation clause.
- Licence suitability of the building for your activity.
- Frontage width and window size.
- Delivery and loading access.
- Planned construction or road works in the area.
- Online findability: does the address make sense on a map search?
Score each from one to five. Anything under forty out of sixty deserves a second look; anything under thirty is a no.
Three Field Measurements
Count passers-by for thirty minutes at three different times on two different days. Visit the nearest three competitors and note their prices and queues. Search the neighbourhood name plus your category on Google Maps and see who appears.
These three measurements take a day and replace most of the guesswork. The map search matters more each year; the region and channel guide explains why.
Sector Priorities and Four Mistakes
Food businesses weight foot traffic and visibility. Services weight parking and online findability. Retail weights frontage and complementary neighbours. Production weights access and licence suitability.
The four mistakes: measuring traffic once, trusting the landlord’s revenue estimate, ignoring the indexation clause, and choosing the site before checking the licence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sık Sorulan Sorular
Foot traffic at your actual opening hours, measured on more than one day, weighed against rent as a share of revenue.
Ideally under fifteen percent of realistic monthly revenue.
Count passers-by at three times on two days, visit three competitors and run a map search for the area and category.
Next step: Once the site scores well, decide between renting or buying, mall or street.