When planning your next Chiropractic or Holistic Healthcare office, location is one of the major decisions you will need to make. If you are starting a practice, adding an additional office, or considering moving locations, you will need to do some research to find the best site. There are a few city-planning factors to consider first.
In general, start your location search high level, such as defining what city/town you wish to be in, and then progressively get into more details. Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine where the best general location for your dream office!
Interested in the Next Steps? Download our 5-Phase Checklist. This resource lays out individual tasks with specific dates to keep you on track for the opening of your office!
Is it compatible?
To begin, determine the area’s compatibility with your practice’s goal clients. This will help you find out if your ideal clients are in the area you are looking at. More ideal clients will mean more business!
First, educate yourself on the demographic of the area that you are targeting. What is the average age of the people in the area? What is their median income? Is there a shift in the community makeup in effect that may change these items in a few years? Do these demographics line up with the target audience for your practice? You can find all of this information through a simple web search. Each category will show differently on a map or chart, so pick one or two that are most important to you.
This example map of Washington, DC area shows the concentration of individuals per age. The dark red areas indicate where the highest concentration of people over 55 are living, while the yellow areas show the lower concentration of people over 55.
Now, the information you find can help you choose a location based on your target marketing. For this example, if your practice is geared toward an older demographic, you’ll want to look in the dark red areas. But if you have a pediatric-based or pregnancy-based practice, you’ll focus on the yellow areas.
Is it a growth area?
If the area is growing, it’s a good sign that they will need a new business, like yours! One way we like to determine if an area is growing is by searching for something called housing permits to see where new homes are being built. Search online for a map based on housing permits issued for the last 6 months to see where the highest percentage of residential homes are being built in your community.
Another way to determine growth is if there are public development projects in the works. If projects like road widening and new shopping centers are being scheduled, it indicates an expected increase in the economy in the area. Is there a new interchange off the interstate scheduled to come to the area? Are there economic incentives that encourage or promote businesses or residential growth? Besides a web search, visiting the local chamber of commerce or city planning can help you find this. 
How does your practice differ from the competition?
Another way to narrow down your options is to search for similar businesses in your target community. Are there already chiropractors offering the same type of practice as yours? How will your practice be different? What do you add to the community that isn’t already covered by an existing doctor in the area?
A few ways to start this research include mapping out all chiropractic offices in the area and other wellness-type centers. An excellent resource for this is Locus Chiropractic Demographics.
Locus also has many other resources for finding out the above information on its website.
Next Steps
Once you have gathered your date, you may have a hard time making the decision solely based on facts. It is also difficult to determine a focus area if your practice has multiple target audiences or other specialties that make you unique. People can have a hard time making a location decision based on facts, and instead, take emotional and personal connections into account. CrossFields can help you determine if the data you have gathered supports your move in an objective manner.
Ready to move forward? We use a 5 Phase System to fully plan your office from start to finish. Contact us today to schedule a free Complimentary Consultation to see how CrossFields can help.
