Using Library Resources to Create a Winning Business Plan Part 2: Target your audience by learning to find and use demographic information.

1. RESEARCHING
YOUR BUSINESS
PLAN
FREE LIBRARY OF PHILADELPHIA
Part II: Find and target your demographic
audience

2. In This Class You Will Learn…
 How to find and target your demographic
audience
 How to use BusinessDecision, a
database which combines demographics,
consumer information and geographic
information system (GIS) mapping
technology to create personalized market
analyses.

3. Demographics
 Demographics are the statistical characteristics of
human populations, such as age and income, that are
used by businesses to identify markets for their goods
and services.
 Demographics are used to identify who your customers
are (now and in the future), where they live, and how
likely they are to purchase the product you are selling.
 By studying your customers and potential customers
through demographics, one can identify changing
needs in the marketplace and adjust to them.
-From Encyclopedia of Small Business. Ed. Laurie Collier Hillstrom and Kevin
Hillstrom. Vol. 1. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2002. p316-318.

4. Using BusinessDecision
 BusinessDecision combines demographics,
consumer information and GIS mapping
technology allowing users to create
personalized market analyses.
 This database can be accessed remotely as
well as from all Free Library locations.

5. Define your Study Area
 Name your Project
 Define your Study Area
 Determine how to analyze your Study Area
 Rings - Information for up to three overlapping rings that use
your site as the center point. Each ring includes the data of any
inner ring.
 Donuts - Information for the area between two rings. Each
donut does NOT include the data of any inner rings.
 Hand-drawn Shape - Information for the area defined by a
shape or corridor you draw yourself.

6. Choose Reports
 Expenditure Reports
 Automotive Aftermarket Expenditures
 House and Home Expenditures
 Household Budget Expenditures
 Medical Expenditures
 Recreation Expenditures
 Retail Goods and Services Expenditures

7. Choose Reports
 Demographic Reports
 2010 Census Report - This report provides Census
2010 data in 2010 geography and includes
population, household, and race variables.
 Age 45+ Report
 Demographic and Income Report
 Detailed Age Report - This report identifies age
distributions for a specified area.
 Household Income Report
 Housing Report - This is the go-to report for detailed
information about housing choices and trends, from
high-rise living and single-family homes to renting or
owning.

8. Choose Reports
 Landscape Report - Compares the top 20 LandScape
Segments in a specified area, ranked by household
percentage to the national counterpart. Classifies
neighborhoods into distinctive market segments based
on their socioeconomic and demographic
characteristics.
 Demographic & Income Reports – View trends in
household demographics and income using Census
2010 data. Many reports include a summary of your
market with current-year estimates and five-year
projections
 Maps
 2000-Based Maps

9. Landscape Report
 LandScape Segmentation Resource Manual
 http://busdec.robj.selfip.com/pdfs/BusdecLandscapeSegmentationReso
urceManual.pdf
 LandScape is comprised of two elements: 15 groups of segments
and 72 segments. The Resource Manual contains complete
descriptions for each of the elements, along with an introduction to
market segmentation, case studies of how market segmentation is
used by businesses, and background information on the
methodology of how the LandScape segmentation system is built.
 LandScape is comprised of two elements: Groups and Segments.
 Groups are comprised of segments with shared traits such as income,
age, family type, and race/ethnicity. There are 15 groups; the number of
segments in each group varies between three and seven.
 Segments describe specific demographic and consumer preferences in
neighborhoods throughout the United States. LandScape classifies 72
segments. Each of the 72 segments is defined at the smallest and most
accurate geographic level possible, the census block group.

10. View Reports
 Reports are available in two formats
 Adobe PDF (presentation quality but cannot edit)
 Microsoft Excel (data in spreadsheet, ability to
edit)
 Click on ‘Preferences’ tab in order to set
default format for reports

11. Search
 We’ll spend the rest of our time tonight using
BusinessDecision and answering your
questions.
 Next week we’ll look at how to find recent
trends in your industry, and how to determine
average finances for a business in your
industry.
 In the meantime, use the resources we
covered tonight and last week, and please
contact us with your questions.

12. Review
Slide presentations and handouts from
this series are available online:
http://www.slideshare.net/freelibrarybsi/
tag/business-plans

13. Contact Us
Free Library of Philadelphia
Business, Science & Industry
Department
215-686-5394
erefbsi@freelibrary.org