The diverse economy of Los Angeles provides many great business opportunities, but not without an array of challenges. Here's how to get started.
When Brian Pettigrew sent a job offer to a recent recruit from the East Coast, he included an unusual guarantee at the bottom of the e-mail: at least seven months of blue skies.
"I was being funny, but at the same time, this is one of the biggest benefits of being based in L.A.," says the VP of Operations for The Visionaire Group, a digital creative agency that does promotions for the movie industry. "I told him that this is the kind of weather you go on vacation to get."
Great weather and Hollywood are two of L.A.'s biggest draws, but for entrepreneurs in the nation's second largest city, there's more than meets the eye. The Visionaire Group is just one of a new breed of innovative digital media companies that are thriving in Los Angeles. "The great thing about being in L.A. during the recession is that studios keep putting out movies," Pettigrew says.
The good times don't stop on the red carpet: The $830 billion economy of the Los Angeles metro area is chock full of opportunities for the entrepreneur. The traffic on the 405 Freeway at rush hour, however, is an indication that you're probably not the first to realize the advantages of doing business in Los Angeles.
Despite the competition, there's still plenty of room for new companies to thrive in Los Angeles. We talked to successful L.A. entrepreneurs to figure the best way to start a business in the land of the rich and famous. Here's how to get started.
Starting a Business in Los Angeles: Do Your Research
The business ecosystem of the Los Angeles metro area is as diverse as you'd expect from the nation's second most populous city. L.A.'s gross metropolitan product in 2008 was $831 billion, which places the metro area as the third largest economic center in the world. But before you jump into a business opportunity in Los Angeles (or any city, really), you should be armed with a knowledge of what industries are thriving there.
The entertainment industry — movies, television, music, and gaming — is the city's claim to fame and arguably still its most prominent industry. But L.A. is also home to a burgeoning technology industry. That hasn't always been the case. "In 2000, the tech companies coming out of L.A. were a joke," says Francisco Dao, president of The Killer Pitch, a Public Relations firm based in Tarzana, California. Dao also organizes the Los Angeles technology conference Twiistup. "It was just laughable."
Fast forward 10 years, and Los Angeles has become one of the leaders in the digital media industry, says Mark Suster, a Los Angeles entrepreneur, venture capitalist at GRP Partners, and organizer of Launchpad L.A., a program to mentor start-up CEOs. "The first phase of the Internet is about building infrastructure," he says. "All those successes came from Silicon Valley. Now, the next phase is about content. People on the internet are going there to be entertained. That's where L.A. is uniquely positioned."
A number of successful companies that have also seen successful exits helped propel the thriving digital media and technology industry in Los Angeles, starting with Myspace, which is headquartered in Beverly Hills. Others include Lowermybills.com, Overture, and AOL. Demand Media and Hulu are two of the largest players today.
Other strong L.A. industries to build a business in or around include the textiles and garments industry, the fashion industry, the auto industry (Honda's North American headquarters are located in the Los Angeles suburb of Torrance), the defense industry, and the advertising industry. International trade is also significant — the port of Los Angeles and Long Beach is one of the busiest in the world.
Dig Deeper: Top L.A. businesses from the Inc. 5000
Starting a Business in Los Angeles: Scout a Location
Now that you're more familiar with the local economy, the next step is to take out a map and get your bearings. The first thing you'll notice is that Los Angeles is a sprawling metropolis (the inspiration for the term urban sprawl, in fact), which can make deciding on a location a more difficult endeavor than meets the eye. Unlike more traditional cities, downtown is most often not the most central location.
The good news is you've already picked an industry, so you can look to a few big hubs for each. Start-ups, especially technology and media firms, tend to be clustered in Santa Monica and neighboring areas on the West Side of Los Angeles, says Tyler Koblasa, a Los Angeles entrepreneur and organizer of Start-Up Weekend L.A. and Start-Up Nights, programs to create a community of Los Angeles entrepreneurs. Another, smaller, tech hub is in Pasadena (home one of the country's top technology schools: Cal Tech). Fashion and textiles are traditionally downtown, while defense businesses tend to be clustered in the South Bay.
If you're starting a retail business, the West Side of Los Angeles, is typically the most high demand area, says Richard Rizika, an executive vice president for retail at Los Angeles-based commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis. (The West Side is typically defined as the area around the 405 Freeway, including neighborhoods such as Century City, Westwood, and Venice Beach. It also includes the cities of Beverly Hills, Culver City, and Santa Monica, among others.) Prices in that part of the city will reflect its popularity: it's not uncommon to see an asking price in excess of $10 per square foot a month, according to Rizika.
Prices for office space are also most expensive on the West side, averaging $3.40 per square foot a month in the second quarter of 2010, according to a report by CB Richard Ellis. "If you want a very central location in the middle of clients, it's going to cost you a lot more," Pettigrew says. "You have to weigh the pluses and minuses. We considered Santa Monica, but it was unrealistic for us." The Visionaire Group is located nearby, near the Marina del Rey neighborhood.
If a prime piece of real estate is still a must this year, you might be in luck. "In the past, new businesses found it very difficult to secure those opportunities because were absorbed the fastest, especially with existing businesses trying to trade up to those locations," Rizika says. "This is a good time to get in the market."
Still, it could end up working to your advantage to look beyond the West Side and other popular areas, like the South Bay or west San Fernando Valley. After a lengthy search process, Jean Shim-Min and her husband Craig Min settled on the Silver Lake neighborhood, towards the east side of the city, for their first retail location for their wholesale coffee business, Lamill Coffee.
"On the West Side, you find a lot of places for a great sandwich, or a great cup of soup," Shim-Min says. "The East Side was much more limited. I felt that was a shame, and so we wanted to provide something for people on the East Side. Financially it made much more sense for us, but we just love the community of Silver Lake. You don't find many real communities like that."
