Kristina wants to expand her custom furniture business. She’s been building furniture in her basement for a few years now. She started out selling only to friends and family and then began to sell online. Now she’s getting so many orders that she can barely keep up with them all. She knows that to expand, she needs to start a factory and hire workers. She decides on a location about 10 minutes from her home. Over dinner with a friend, she explains how fortunate she is to live near a major city with a big airport, a good highway system, and an educated workforce and to have a business in a state with minimal regulations and low taxes.

Scenario 2
Andrew has been creating custom car accessories in his garage for years. He’s been selling so many accessories online that he can barely keep up with his orders. He lives in a small town, so there aren’t many people he can employ to work for him. He pays a significant amount of his income in taxes as well. He realizes he might need to move to expand his business. But he’s dreading the trip to investigate possible locations because it’s a two-hour drive on narrow two-lane roads to reach the nearest major airport.

What is driving Andrew’s and Kristina’s decisions on where to expand their businesses?