The same location mistakes appear in post-mortems of failed small businesses with striking regularity. Here are the ten most common — every single one is predictable, preventable, and unnecessary.
Mistake 1: Falling in love with the space before checking the numbers
The beautiful heritage building with exposed brick and original floorboards is a trap if the economics do not work. Emotional attachment to a premises before doing a financial analysis is the most common cause of bad location decisions. The building is irrelevant until the numbers pass.
Mistake 2: Using the suburb reputation instead of suburb data
"Fitzroy is a great suburb for cafes" is not the same as "this specific location in Fitzroy will support a profitable café." Suburban reputation tells you something about demand. Data tells you whether demand at a specific site, at a specific rent, with specific competition, is viable.
Mistake 3: Measuring foot traffic once
A site that is busy at 10am Saturday may be quiet at 7:30am Tuesday. A single foot traffic count gives you a single data point. You need at least 5–6 counts across different times and days to build a reliable picture of the traffic pattern your business would actually experience.
Mistake 4: Not accounting for seasonal variation
Visiting a beachside café strip in February and building your financial model on what you see is dangerous. Visit in July too. The difference between peak and off-peak trade in seasonal locations can be 40–60% of revenue. Your working capital needs to sustain the quiet period without destroying the business.
Mistake 5: Assuming low competition = high opportunity
Low competition can mean two completely different things: underserved demand, or no demand. A suburb with no cafes might have no cafes because there is no morning commuter flow and residents drive through rather than stop. Or it might be a genuine gap. The data tells you which it is.
Mistakes 6–10 in brief
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