Celebrating Rural Georgia

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Celebrating Rural Georgia
Reading the Crystal Ball How Communities and
Businesses Can Conduct Home Grown Market Research
Presented by Sharon P. Kane Center for
Agribusiness and Economic Development Food
Science and Technology August 22, 2006
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Celebrating Rural Georgia
A Deep Discussion...
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Enhance the DEPTH of Your Knowledge

• Discover why the right information is important
  for success in business development
• Explore what questions should be asked
• Prepare a plan to address the questions
• Track where good data sources may be found many
  are FREE
• Have a better understanding of your business
  environment!

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Why is research important?

• Critical component in strategic planning for
  community business development initiatives
• Essential for business planning purposes
  start-up and ongoing
• Helps individual business owners in determining
  key information about their market or industry
• Provides information to banks or investors - any
  funding source - for needed capital
• Data to assist in important business decisions
  expansion, new product lines, new business
  recruitment, economic profile
• Provides an understanding of the local economy as
  well as regional and national economic trends

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What questions should be asked?

• Understand community objectives!
• What makes your community special?
• What do area citizens think about the local
  business environment?
• Where are critical information gaps?
• What limitations are there in seeking this
  information? (i.e. cost, time, community
  objections)
• How complex are these tasks? Should we seek
  technical assistance in pursuing these
  objectives?
• What is the expected outcome of receiving this
  information?

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Tips for Planning

• Incorporate answers to business/community
  questions into a plan
• Consider the expected time frame for results
• Make decisions about methods and output involve
  technical assistance providers
• Anticipate how findings will be used
• Stick to the objectives!

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Resources for Research

• Feasibility Study
• Economic Impact Study
• Market Study
• Consumer Opinion Survey
• Data Analysis
• Focus Groups
• In-depth Interviews

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Resources for Research
Do-It-Yourself

• Basic, yet helpful research tools are publicly
  available or through technical assistance
  providers
• Often free or very low cost, so can provide at
  least a good starting point
• Requires the use of some caution to prevent use
  of invalid data

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Points to Remember

• Filter not all data is essential information
• Not every source is valid
• -I found it on the Internet
• Free is not necessarily best, VALUE is the key

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Resources for Research

• Demographic Information
• The U.S. Census Bureau (www.census.gov) provides
  a broad range of data for business uses,
  including
• County Business Patterns
• Decennial Census
• American Fact Finder
• Economic Census
• Survey of Business Owners
• Statistics of U.S. Businesses

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Resources for Research

• Farm Gate Value Report
• Georgia County Guide
• Community Demographic Profiles
• Georgia Statistics System
• Industry Economic Impact Series

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Resources for Research
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Resources for Research
Median Household Effective Buying Income, 2003
http//www.georgiastats.uga.edu/
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Resources for Research
Georgia by County TM-H027. Median Value of
Specified Owner-Occupied Housing Units 2000  
Universe Specified owner-occupied housing
unitsData Set Census 2000 Summary File 3 (SF 3)
- Sample Data
http//factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_
langen
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Resources for Research
Free Purchasing Power Profiles and Workforce
Density Data for All Census Tracts and
Residential ZIP Codes in U.S. The University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee Employment and Training
Institute provides comparison data on purchasing
power, business activity, and workforce density
for all census tracts, residential ZIP codes, and
the 100 largest metro areas in the U.S. The
profiles are designed to help cities, companies,
developers, small business owners, and community
organizations assess the advantages of urban
density for underserved city neighborhoods.
http//www.uwm.edu/Dept/ETI/PurchasingPower/purcha
sing.htm
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FedFITFederal Reserve Fiscal Impact Tool

• FIT is easy-to-use software designed to help
  community and economic developers estimate the
  likely effects of a specific economic development
  project.
• FIT is intended for community and economic
  development professionals, primarily in small and
  mid-size communities.
• FIT does not purport to give a single right
  answer but seeks only to present a rough picture
  of the likely impact.

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Resources for Research
Your technical assistance provider has data with
exclusive access
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Value of National Trends
http//www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2005/sbo_w
omen_map.pdf
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Resources for Research

• Private companies sell information that they
  collect
• Specific industries
• Customized compilations
• Business information
• GIS Technology
• Examples include
• Claritas
• ESRI
• Dun Bradstreet

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Woods Poole Economics/State Profile Data

• Contains annual data from 1969 through 2030 for
  the U.S. and Georgia counties, and metropolitan
  and micropolitan areas as defined by the Office
  of Management and Budget.
• It includes variable such as population,
  employment, earnings, per capita income, retail
  sales per-household, number of households by
  income categories and total retail sales for
  selected categories.

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Resources for Research

• RESOURCE
• Dollars and Cents of Shopping Centers (2004)
• Includes comprehensive income and expense data
  for shopping centers and tenants organized by
  center type and region

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REFERENCE USA

• RESOURCE
• ReferenceUSA
• Available databases
• The business database contains detailed
  information on 13 million businesses in the U.S.
• The residential database contains information on
  120 million households in the U.S.--mostly
  addresses and telephone numbers.

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TRADE DIMENSIONSwww.tradedimensions.com

• RESOURCE
• Retail Tenant Directory (book, CD-Rom, Online
  formats) www.retailtenants.com
  www.PlainVanillaShell.com
• This publication contains in-depth profiles of
  over 5,400 retail chains across the U.S.
• Purchase prices
• Book 399
• CD-ROM 1345
• Online 995 (one user)

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Questions?
Contact Info Sharon P. Kane, Food Business
Development Specialist The University of
Georgia 240-B Food Science Building Athens,
Georgia 30602 Office 706-542-2574 E-mail
spkane_at_uga.edu