Water treatment business: Going online vs. staying the local expert
Heightened awareness for water quality in recent years has manifested with a boom in water treatment devices. As such, a growing number of businesses around water treatment have also emerged. If you are one such prospective business, interested in gaining a foothold in the water treatment industry, then there are a few things you should consider.
There is always the constant push to expand ever more outward with the advent of the internet and the franchise possibilities it offers. So how do you navigate this path? Chances are you only just started out, are looking to begin, or found yourself at the crossroads of staying a local expert versus expanding online.
Get a good grasp of the industry
The global water treatment market has grown exponentially, but even before health issues like Covid, slow steady growth was still evident. The rising population, as well as the fast urban development, are the two main driving forces that contribute to water treatment demand.
The higher concentration of the population in urban areas contributes to higher levels of pollution and waste contamination. As such many will seek to make use of water treatment devices. This kind of information is important for a growing business. It helps one understand where demand will be higher, what issues will be prevalent and how the business will flourish depending on location.
Water treatment business based on location
The location of the business is one that may be affected by other issues, like your budget and the necessary licenses you can acquire. Location is important not just for business practices but also in the water treatment industry in general. The location you choose to operate will dictate certain aspects of your business.
Local expert
Starting out small is possibly the best way to ensure steady growth with a business. Of course, it’s not always a guarantee as markets change and stock prices fluctuate and affect everything, but you have to start somewhere.
In the water treatment industry, starting small can be a blessing. You have everything close at hand, you can research local water problems in-depth and become a local expert. Fluctuating issues will be closer and easier to adjust to if need be. Say there is a period when multiple water tests conducted in different locations turn up high levels of water hardness. This means there could be a higher demand for water softeners in your areas, and you can stock up on softening devices to meet the demand.
Local expertise can take different forms. In an urban setting, this will look quite different than in a rural one. Urban areas are very often connected to city treatment facilities and can have other problems that clients may want to deal with, like chlorine and limescale. Rural areas will have a greater interest in well water treatment and wastewater management. Based on such widely diverging interests with regards to water treatment, you can develop certain expert knowledge on the local level.
Going online
Promoting your water treatment business online can benefit you on the local side as well. This is mainly because people will be able to find you, know what you do, and drive business directly from the web. Opportunities with online water treatment shops can even come in the form of expansion. What this means is that you may no longer be bound by local constraints if you are able to ship products all over the country.
In expanding a business like this there will be a need to research what demand is like for other areas and clients. Based on their specific water quality needs, you can gauge the niches that are present elsewhere, and provide the necessary products. Availability is the number one factor many new clients look for, closely followed by reliability.
The supply chain
Opting for either remaining local or extending online, your supply chain is something that can change. Both situations can be affected more or less equally, but circumstances can always change.
On the local level, a supplier will need to be able to provide the necessary product to the specific location. A rural water treatment business might have trouble finding enough suppliers to deliver to more remote locations. The number of suppliers that provide the necessary product to treat specific well water issues might be smaller and require further research.
In an expanded urban metropolis, suppliers will be more abundant. Even when certain companies will falter and not be able to offer products they used to before, it could be easier to find another supplier that can deliver in a busy city. One obstacle with starting a water treatment business in a larger city will be in the form of higher competition. Many other business-savvy people will want to take advantage of this opportunity and thus create competition.
The competition
There are therefore advantages and disadvantages to either being a local water treatment expert or implementing this business in a big metropolis. Poor water quality in crowded busy cities creates in a paradoxical manner a demand for water treatment devices. At the same time, rural areas plagued by even greater water issues will still exhibit demand for treatment options with possibly less competition.
Urban competition for an already large established water treatment business can pose an interesting prospect. In order to face the competition of the urban setting, if the resources are available, one can extend towards more remote rural farming businesses. The reach of a larger online business presence could quite possibly be enough to get a grasp within a different lucrative sector of water treatment.
The takeaway
The water treatment business is a highly competitive one. Starting out on a local basis or extending from the online sphere, both come with their own set of opportunities and disadvantages. Capitalizing on one with the help of the other could be a smart move to evolve or change the business.
Investment in local water issues and financial research is a possible route to take in starting out or maintaining a water treatment business. From testing to providing options for specific contaminants a local water expert can keep the business going, and possibly even reach further with the help of online marketing.
