{"id":10134,"date":"2019-04-15T09:39:21","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T15:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/?p=10134"},"modified":"2019-04-15T09:39:21","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T15:39:21","slug":"market-data-available-to-small-businesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/articles\/starting-or-growing-a-business\/market-data-available-to-small-businesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Market Data Available to Small Businesses"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Article by Sandy Nelson.<\/p><\/div>\n

A business plan is incomplete without a financial section that forecasts how the owner expects the company to grow and how much revenue he believes the company will generate based on his reading of the market for its products or services.<\/p>\n

But unless that projection is grounded in reality, it won\u2019t make the desired impression on a lender or investor \u2014 or even on a landlord who wants some assurance the business will last as long as the commercial lease.<\/p>\n

Lenders, venture capitalists and other investors who finance startups deal in concrete numbers, because they\u2019re betting real money on a concept or enterprise that\u2019s typically untested. If they\u2019re presented with an educated guess about the market that exists for a given product or service, they expect it to be a well<\/em>-educated one.<\/p>\n

Even if the business is past the startup phase and isn\u2019t looking for financing, its owners need reliable information about the market so they can project future demand and make plans to meet it.<\/p>\n

Trustworthy, unbiased market research based on accurate data and analytics is the only way for business owners to see where they\u2019re going. And New Mexico is fortunate to have several sources of these vital statistics, as well as professionals who can help interpret them for business developers.<\/p>\n

They include the University of New Mexico Bureau of Business and Economic Research, or BBER, and the state Economic Development Department\u2019s New Mexico State Data Center.<\/p>\n

BBER <\/strong>specializes in compiling and sharing New Mexico-specific socioeconomic data that can help a business owner thoroughly research the market.<\/p>\n

Operators of the bureau\u2019s Data Bank call it \u201ca clearinghouse for all socioeconomic and census-related information in New Mexico,\u201d including demographics, population projections, state and local tax information and the most current statistics about salaries, education levels, employment and growth.<\/p>\n

While much of the information is available at no cost on the bureau\u2019s website (bber.unm.edu<\/a>), bureau researchers are eager to personally help businesses, organizations and individuals locate and interpret the data that interests them.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s Economic Development Department coordinates the New Mexico State Data Center<\/strong>, whose mission is to disseminate information and help businesses understand it.<\/p>\n

The data center\u2019s website (gonm.biz\/site-selection<\/a>) is a treasure trove of numbers, including U.S. Census Bureau statistics and profiles of New Mexico counties and tribes mined from various official sources. Its workforce profiles, for example, can help a startup owner decide what part of the state has the characteristics and skills that match the business\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

Besides making statistical information available to market researchers of all types, the center extends specialized services to businesses wanting to settle in one of New Mexico\u2019s rural communities. According to its website, the center\u2019s researchers will provide technical assistance if customized data are needed and will even assemble the data for any grant proposal, business development project or marketing initiative that abets economic growth in rural communities.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Finance New Mexico article 602 by Sandy Nelson.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A business plan is incomplete without a financial section that forecasts how the owner expects the company to grow and how much revenue he believes the company will generate based on his reading of the market for its products or … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[405,158,23,13],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10134"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10134"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10136,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10134\/revisions\/10136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}