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Entrepreneurship & New Business

Tips and tools to research startup business ideas, consumers, industries, and locations.

How healthy is the local market? Will the location support a new business in my industry?

After you research the consumer market for company idea, service, or product, you will want to adapt that data down to the local level in which you plan to operate.  Your local market could be a city, zip code, state, or region.  The resources below can help you find information about your local market to combine with national consumer market trends.

Tools for local market information

  • Use SimplyAnalytics to know how many people in your market area buy a product, belong to a certain demographic, and more. 
  • As an example, you could use SimplyAnalytics to find data by zip code on the percentage of people in Columbus, Ohio, who are very interested in watching NFL games, while also showing the location of Applebees restaurants in the area.

 

  • Use Mergent Intellect to identify and locate potential competitors in your industry. 
  • Is there room in the market for your new business?
  • How are the other companies doing?  (look at estimated sales)

 

  • Use Bizminer to better understand the health of your industry in the local region.

 

  • You will want to use census data to compare how your local market demographics align with the more general national demographics of a consumer market (like what you find in Simmons, Mintel, and Passport)