Look at your competitors business locations

When considering a location for your small business, think like your competition.

It's not an accident that the same large retailers--Home Goods, Michaels and Target, for example--locate within a stone's throw of each other.

It may seem counterintuitive to settle right alongside the competition, but clustering can increase business and lead to cost savings in hiring and shipping, among other things. Says Pamela Hannigan, "Becoming part of a cluster that attracts a much larger market can still make [you] better off than if [you] try to establish [your] own market in some virgin territory."

On to Spend time at a location you are considering...