7.0. HRSR 06-28-1999 - Laserfiche WebLink

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• ABOUT THIS WORKBOOK This workbook is designed for use by downtown and commercial district revitalization organizations who want to improve the mix of businesses in their district by helping existing businesses thrive,and by recruiting new businesses to fill gaps in the market.The workbook combines information with a"fill-in-the-blank"style so that a volunteer business development team can work through the process at their own speed.The exercises are designed so that a committee can oversee the project,parts can be assigned to volunteers,sections can be done at community meetings, or all of the above. Because the first step in business development is F. understanding local market opportunities,this workbook is designed to be the foundation for business development, and its companion workbook, the Fill-in-the-Blank Business Recruitment. This workbook should be viewed as a beginning to an ongoing education about economic development opportunities in the community.The 10 steps cover the basic components of a market analysis,.but each community will uncover unique local strengths and problems not covered here. • After completing the workbook,the community will have developed the material necessary to complete a basic market analysis. • Participants will have learned how to: • fmd and use sources of market analysis data; • complete a basic demographic analysis; • compute retail sales leakage; and • develop a retail cluster analysis. NEEDED RESOURCES Business Development Team Since this book is geared toward downtown and commercial district revitalization A organizations,it is making the assumption that the majority of the activities described will be completed by volunteers from the community. Throughout the book,the group of volunteers doing the collective work of market analysis is referred to as the business development team, or simply,the team. The business development team may want to vary its membership over time or assign specific task groups to each project. People with skills such as sales and marketing,economic development,real estate or business experience are helpful. Participants should be willing to work with large amounts of information,some of which may need to be kept confidential.There is a lot of data available,but only a portion of it is real information. • Prior knowledge of market analysis or high levels of math ability are not required,but the team iv-STEP BY STEP MARKET ANALYSIS