Last week on the BBC’s popular business-inspired contest show ‘”The Apprentice’, both teams were given £150 and the challenge of setting up a successful retail venture from theme, to pricing, to product and – at its heart – to see successfully. On the first day, the contestants sold out of a market stall in Spitalfields. On the second day, the teams worked from a pop up shop in Shoreditch.
On both sale days, and in the boardroom at the shows conclusion, one message rang loud and clear: Location Is King.
With that in mind, my traditional ‘Apprentice Analysis’ session with my office colleague took an interesting angle and deep consideration of the central question facing any new business; ‘How DO you choose where to open a shop or office?’.
I could only therefore deem it good fortune when Start Up Magazine showed me Completely Retail – a UK wide, retail focused property-marketing database. Grown from the established property-marketing group Squeeze (who bring expertise in both domestic and retail property spaces), Completely Retail is a one-stop web solution to navigate the retail property shark pond.
Like any London professional, I relish the romantic ideal of strolling down a cobbled Hackney street, seeing a vacant loft space one week, and seeing the latest hot fashion / boutique ceramics / distinctive street art outlet running at full throttle fourteen days later – but of course the reality is starkly different.
When looking at a tenable business space, logistics and small print are as vital as the intended audience, footfall and the intended ‘People Traffic’. Whether it’s a small business office space, or a multi story commercial warehouse, the matters of business planning permission, mortgages and leasing all command great attention.
Brilliantly, Completely Retail allows the aspirant retail space tenant a user-friendly search system: you enter your intended town, square footage required, rent fees, and the type of rental you need (i.e. business space / data centre / high street / warehouse), and search…. It makes identifying your options and locations with literally one click.
In addition, Completely Retail covers shopping centres and retail warehousing options, Office Spaces and Trade and Industrial spaces. With a quirky, clean website, and clearly punchy search engine technology behind it, we at Start Up are impressed. It’s refreshing to see a group committed to excellence in a highly specific field; after only a short time on the site, I found myself thinking differently about what I would truly want from our next office space. It is a valuable site worth bookmarking when it actually prompts you to consider new ideas posed around your original mission.
As a final touch of flair, Completely Retail’s site features an Events Tab detailing their one-day, sector specific exhibitions, that they run for those entrenched in the UK property industry. One recent example is ‘Completely Office Marketplace’ – an approaching exhibition exploring the UK’s leading office developments now and in the future. Again, it’s a reflection of a brand powered by genuine enthusiasm and a positive mission to take property ideas to the interested and entrepreneurial market, and one that makes the site well worth a visit.
If successful business is indeed, a matter of ‘inches’, those inches are possibly nowhere as important as they are in choosing the right space for your shop front, office domain or central trade warehouse. Don’t slip up and make sure you have as much good quality information to hand as possible. For your research and decision-making, Completely Retail is not a bad place to start.
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