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For Female Entrepreneurs, a Ground-Floor Apartment Is Key

A new study finds that the home-based businesses of poor women in a Colombian city are much more successful when they are located on the street level.
Workers construct an apartment building in Bogota, Colombia. A new study of home-based businesses in a Colombian city finds that the floor the business is based on affects its success.Jaime Saldarriaga/Reuters

When it comes to business location, we typically think in terms of neighborhood—say in a downtown commercial corridor or a suburban office park. What we don’t think about is the floor a business is located on and how that might affect its success.

The reality is the floor a business occupies can matter significantly and in surprising ways.