Finding a Location for Your Business

Check Out Your Potential Customers

Where can you get a marketing survey for potential customers in your area?

SimplyMap, one of Skokie Public Library's databases can help. With SimplyMap you can generate reports or create thematic maps that can help you understand your potential market.

For instance, if you are starting a day care business in the Northern Suburbs you would probably want to know what areas have the most children and are projected to have the most children into the future.  With SimplyMap you can find this data and much more.

Check out your Competition

Where is your competition located? 

When opening a business it is helpful to know where your competition is located and also how many competitors you may have.  With the SimplyMap and ReferenceUSA databases you can find who are where your competition is.

With ReferenceUSA you can create lists of comparible businesses in various locations around the US (all the day care businesses in the 60077 area code for instance).  With SimplyMap and also the GoogleMaps website you can see your competition on a map.  This graphical display can sometimes reveal more than a mere list of businesses.

• Sometimes a graphical display of similar businesses can be helpful.  SimplyMap and GoogleMaps are two programs that will provide customizable maps of businesses.  Also GoogleMaps is a powerful marketing tool and you can register your own business to appear when someone does a search for that type of business in a particular area.