Enterprise// Business: Finding somewhere to set up..

For our business we will be needing somewhere to set up. Our business is called 'Upstairs Downstairs', we will have a studio upstairs which will be offering the service of branding and identity to clients. Downstairs we will have a shop which will sell design work of outside 'clients', the shop downstairs will be divided into spaces which we will rent out to young designers who wish to sell their work. The space downstairs doesnt need to be huge, but it will need to be a substantial amount of space in order to maximise the amount of sellers space.

We have decided to set up our business in Edinburgh as this is one of the most creative cities in the UK.

http://www.unesco.org.uk/creative_cities_network#UK

Information taken from Barclays business help guide.
















I started my search by typing into Google 'shops to rent in Edinburgh', a few results came up from several websites, here is what I found//

44 Princes Street, Edinburgh

This is an example of something that we wouldnt be able to afford for our business. The shop space is much larger and located in a very demanding and popular area. This sort of retail space would be bought by a large company to potentially set up one of their many stores, the rent for this retail space is £115,000 per annum.
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22 Lady Lawson Street, Edinburgh

This property is rented at £8000 per annum which is a good price, this means we would be able to rent shop space at a lower cost which would potentially increase interest from a student/ young designer market. The only downfall to this property is that access to the basement is via a floor hatch which isnt really practical for a studio space.
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62 Clerk Street, Edinburgh

This property is in a prime location situated in the heart of Edinburgh. The rent on this property is a lot higher because of its location, but it also comes with more space. There is an upstairs retail space and downstairs there is a basement which can be used for storage or a studio. If we were to choose this property to set up our business we would need to increase the rate of renting the shop space to designers which could possibly exclude our potential target market of young designers/ students.

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Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh

I emailed the owner for more information on this property found on Gumtree:

The front premise is 3m x 6m,  the back and the basement is pretty similar.The basement is usable and can be converted into office.

The rent for the shop is 9000£ per annum.There is no business rates.The utility is not included in the rent /electricity, gas and water around 130£ per month it's depends how the meter shows.The lease is to sell through www.centralbusinesssales.co.uk 
agency.


This is the most suitable property that I found that suites the needs of the business. It has an upstairs and a dowstairs, it can be used for retail and the basement can be converted into a studio space. It is also in an ideal location, situated near the centre of Edinburgh.

This image from Google maps shows the distance between our shops location and the Edinburgh college of Art which is a potential target market for the spaces we wish to rent in our shop.


It is a 15 minute walk between the two which is ideal.

I have worked out that from the information given by the owner that the monthly cost of this property would be £822 (this is including the rent and the utility bills), which would make the annual cost of the property £9864.


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