American Factfinder
is part of the Census Bureau website that offers community profiles, population and housing facts, and industry and business facts.

Bureau of Labor Statistics
provides wage and labor statistics.

Understanding Your Market

Your business will not succeed just because you want it to succeed. Determining if there is a market for your products or services is the most critical time of planning. Once you decide on your product or service, you must analyze your market; a process involving interviewing competitors, suppliers and new customers.

However, before you begin researching your market, you should take a brief, but close, look at your product or service from an objective standpoint. In terms of a checklist, you should ask yourself the following questions: