How many parking spaces should your business have?

When you start a new business, there are a lot of decisions you need to make — and one of the most important decisions is your business location. Most business owners take their time looking at the inside of spaces but forget all about the parking situation. The last thing you want is lack of available parking to ruin your customers' experience. Learn how to determine how many parking spaces your business really needs.

​Check the Official Parking Regulations

The first thing you need to do is check with your local municipality to see if any current parking requirements affect your business. Usually, the amount of parking spots a business is required to have depends on the type of business. For example, a restaurant might be required to have 50 parking spots and a large retail store may be required to have 75 spaces.

 City of Courtenay Zoning Bylaws - Part 11 Page 26

​Conduct Some Local Research

​Talk to other local business owners with similar businesses to determine how many parking spots they fill during peak business times. You can simply give a few businesses a call or meet other business owners in the area by attending networking events. Researching the needs of businesses similar to yours gives you a good idea of what to expect.

​Think About Your Employees

Parking availability affects your employees as much as it does your customers. So when you're trying to determine how many parking spots you need, don't forget about the number of workers on-site at any given time. Try to find a building that has available parking out back for employees — with backdoor access. This way, they don't have to park all the way in the back of the lot and walk up to your establishment before and after their shift.
Ultimately, it's better to have too many parking spaces than it is to not have enough. You should aim to have enough parking spaces available for both your customers and your employees during your company's busiest times.