Business location analysis is the practice of choosing where to open (or expand) a business based on measurable facts about a place rather than on gut feeling or a landlord's pitch. In the US, nearly all of the facts you need are published by the federal government for free. The hard part is assembling them for one place and one industry at a time.
The data that matters for a location
| Question | Public source | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| How many people live here, and what do they earn? | US Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates | Population, median household income, median age, median rent, education |
| Is this industry hiring or shrinking locally? | Bureau of Labor Statistics, Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) | County-level employment and establishment counts by industry |
| What is the national trend? | Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics (CES) | Monthly national employment by sector |
| Who already serves this market? | Google Places listings | Competitors, ratings, review volumes, locations |
| What does it cost to live here? | ACS median rent and income | Price points the market can support |
How to read the numbers
- Income sets the price point. A median household income of $45,000 supports a different menu than $110,000. Look at income relative to the state, not just the raw figure.
- Competition per resident matters more than competitor count. Twelve coffee shops in a city of 300,000 is a very different market from twelve in a town of 20,000.
- Ratings show where the gap is. A cluster of low-rated competitors is an opening; a cluster of 4.8-star ones is a warning.
- Local trend beats national trend. A sector can grow nationally while its county count falls. County-level QCEW data is the one to trust for siting.
- People drive. Rank neighbourhoods for who lives there (your audience), but expect customers from a trade radius, not just the tract the shop sits in.
How Neur automates it
Neur takes the city you are considering, resolves your business type to an industry category, and pulls each of the datasets above for that place. The result is the Location pillar of your feasibility score, an interactive market map of competitors within a trade radius, a comparable-cities section showing where similar businesses thrive, and a local industry snapshot at county level. See How Neur works.