After Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 US presidential election, i felt i needed to know a bit about the business guy in him. I decided to watch the Apprentice, a reality TV Show starring Donald Trump, starting obviously with season 1 episode 1.

After finishing the episode, i was inspired to write about a very important subject, that i always planned to write about, which is the business location.

In business we say: Location, location, location

Location is such an important factor that it is repeated 3 times in a 3 words phrase !
Simply put, location is one of the most important factors, if not the most important factor, for any brick and mortar business. Location can make or break a business.
An average business in a premium location, can be 10x more successful than a top business in an average location. That’s why the big multinationals always choose premium locations for their offices (capitals and big malls are considered premium locations).

Case Study : The Apprentice challenge 1.

Let’s start with the Apprentice 1st episode, so the concept is that from 16 candidates, Trump will chose 1 to head one of his companies. And to select this individual the 16 contestant will compete during the entire season, and during each episode Trump will fire one of the contestants.

So, for the 1st episode, the contestants were split in 2 groups, men vs women, each group given $250 and asked to sell lemonade.

Related: see my business lessons from a lemonade stand post

The men’s group: They were fast to organize, put a plan and delegate tasks, they were able to make some interesting deals to get free stuff, like cups, ice, even an empty lemonade cart.
The person who had the task to find a good location, selected a location next to a fish market. They later moved to another location.
They were selling the lemonade cups for $1-2, one guy was clowning -he thinks it was hustling – , another guy was trying to sell a cup for a $1000.

The women’s group: They were a complete mess, chaotic, wasted time arguing and fighting, and even emotions were on display. Afterwards 2 women split from the group to buy the ingredients, only to decide to go rogue and setup shop, while the 6 other ladies struggle to join them on location. The women setup shop on a busy street, started selling their lemonades for $5, a beautiful women from the group was kissing every guy that buys a lemonade, and they were joking 1$ for lemonade 4$ for the kiss.

End of the day, the men doubled the capital and the women quadrupled it …

Related: Are men better leaders and entrepreneurs than women

Related: sex sells in advertising

There’s no doubt sex sells, but what is also a very important factor in this case is ‘location‘, the guys were better at everything and yet they lost, simply because they chose a bad location.

The teams went back to be judged, and even though the guys were better hustler, better opportunity creators, they made a single mistake that did cost them this round. Also “the clown” was fired.

The Basic of Business.

Another business legend, Warren Buffet,  also emphasized on the importance of location, in a cute animation video:

An important message Buffet slipped in the video:
“if the people don’t come to your business, bring your business to the people.”
How can you do that ? especially if you can not afford a brick and mortar in a premium location … the answer is marketing and advertising.
Indeed, if your business is located in an optimal place, it will act as an advertising beacon at the same time, reminding people of your business, and keeping your business in their subconscious.

Does Location location location apply to online business ?

Kind of … But not in the same sense as for brick and mortar, for online business the 3 locations that matter are:
Your location in search engine results >Did you invest in SEO & Content Marketing?
Your location in social media > Did you invest in Socia Media Marketing?
Your location on the honesty meter > Do you have good reviews?