As you travel

When you come across a use similar to yours (This would be your Direct Competition), take out your Red felt-tip pen and write the businesses name, a symbol or a just big old dot on the map (and be as accurate as possible to where it is on the street).

When you come across a use that offers a similar, but different, product or service to yours (Your Indirect Competition) note it on the map with a Green pen and in a similar fashion.

Traffic generators (Shopping centers, hospitals, colleges and universities, large industrial parks, office complexes; anything that generates traffic – duh) are very important to many businesses and should always be noted on your map, in Black ink.

Finally, use the Blue pen for jotting down your ideas, impressions or even phone numbers (this is, after all, just a map…it’s not the US Constitution).

There is a good reason for this beyond us just being fussy; as you go through this exercise, you’ll notice certain patterns start to emerge. And when you are finished, what you’ll see is an accurate (albeit colorful) depiction of where all of the commercial office (Day Population), retail (Traffic Generators) and basic residential activity (Customers) of your market is.

The point of this exercise is to identify both the best and hopefully the potentially worst possible areas for you to place your business.

(You’ll notice that we have used the term “location” in the plural sense.
The reason for this is that you should always be looking at as many locations as possible).
Aside from being able to have a larger universe of sites to possibly choose form,
if you consider a few sites at a time, you’ll be able to negotiate from a stronger bargaining position).

Next:

Paying attention to the Details

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