Location Location Location

A report on CNN last fall suggested the top 100 places to start your business. Obviously, this is a broad generalization, and you need to consider the needs of your particular creative business before picking a place to live and work. But the report does two important things: it gives you some ideas and information, and it also emphasizes the importance of location.

The phrase "location, location, location" is the mantra of the real estate world, but you need to keep it pretty high on the list of important factors for your firm as well. If you're picking a city in which to launch, or if you're already tied to a city but need to pick a neighborhood, then you need to give some thought to what you need and what your different possibilities can provide. There's a growing sense that with the opportunity for dispersed working that location doesn't matter anymore, but that simply isn't the case. And if you're coming into a firm that's already in an established location, you need to figure out how to take advantage of the opportunities there while minimizing any disadvantages.

So why does location matter?

Well, first of all, it's good if your Creatives are in a stimulating environment. It helps to be around other Creatives, and not just from your own company. Coffee houses, museums, galleries...these are great places for your Creatives to meet and talk with with others, to get inspiration, or just to recharge their batteries. There's a great place in Singapore for example, the Red Dot Traffic Building, which is filled with marketing companies, design firms, music studios, photographers, and other Creatives, who seem to share a lot with others in the courtyard or in the local Pacific Coffee Company (I spent a lot of time there myself). Putting your firm in a city with a good university, or with an active art and music scene, or with something else that encourages creativity, will help you a lot.

What else? Well, frankly, convenience, both in terms of daily commuting and also when it comes to getting in and out of the city. If possible, try to minimize the commuting hassles for your Creatives...you don't want them stressed out from road rage when they get to work, nor do you want them watching the clock at the end of the day so they avoid rush hour. Commuting can take a LOT out of your Creatives, so look for a city with an active urban center to provide a nice centralized location, and if possible try to encourage walking or biking to work, or taking public transport...anything to avoid driving! In terms of getting in and out of the city, it's not surprising that many Creatives enjoy travel, whether to new places over seas or just out of town for the day. Cities with well-served airports, with good road systems leading in and out of town, and with passenger rail service, can make travel easier and your location more attractive.

What do you do if you're stuck with a location but it doesn't give you all you need? Well, when it comes to your city, maybe get involved in the community in a way that helps bring the things you need, like a more active art scene or bike paths to ease commuting. If your neighborhood isn't cutting it, look at how you can design your office space to compensate. For instance, if there are no food and beverage outlets nearby, then provide a nice place within your offices where employees can gather for lunch (with big tables rather than small, to encourage people to sit together rather than individually) rather than having to brown-bag it at the desks all the time. If the commute is bad, try encouraging telework at least part of the week.

Ongoing discussions about the advantages of telework and free agents may suggest that location doesn't matter because remote work is the way to go, but that's really not the case, particularly for your permanent, full-time Creatives. There are advantages to all these different working styles, but while remote work can be necessary based on your circumstances, that doesn't mean it's always the best. As always, you need to consider the needs of your field and your firm and determine what's most important to you. Professor Richard Florida, in a March 2009 article in The Atlantic, discusses Nobel laureate Robert Lucas and notes that

"Well-educated professionals and creative workers who live together in dense ecosystems, interacting directly, generate ideas and turn them into products and services faster than talented people in other places can. There is no evidence that globalization or the Internet has changed this."

Location still matters. If you have a chance to choose, then make the most of it. If you're stuck with what you've got, and it's not ideal, do the best you can with what you have.