Best Source for demographics

[OliMint]

Hey,

I am looking for a useful source for demographics for the purpose of seeing if opening a gym in Atlanta is a viable option.

I am a financial analyst who is currently working in project finance (property projects). I am also a qualified PT. All my spare time is spent either training myself or training others (time permitting).

Given my love of training myself and a work collegue are looking into opening up a club in Atlanta. I was wondering if anyone had found a good source for demographics that they could share that would help? From the people I have spoken to about this I know it's a numbers game. So far I have found the Brookings Inst and the US Census Bureau good.

Given the area I currently work in the numbers side will be ok to figure out. At the minute we are trying to see if Atlanta needs another gym. This one would not be a franchise, it would be something we would start from scratch ourselves.

Any help / advice is appreciated!

[AskTheTrainer]

Originally Posted by OliMint

Hey,

I am looking for a useful source for demographics for the purpose of seeing if opening a gym in Atlanta is a viable option.

I am a financial analyst who is currently working in project finance (property projects). I am also a qualified PT. All my spare time is spent either training myself or training others (time permitting).

Given my love of training myself and a work collegue are looking into opening up a club in Atlanta. I was wondering if anyone had found a good source for demographics that they could share that would help? From the people I have spoken to about this I know it's a numbers game. So far I have found the Brookings Inst and the US Census Bureau good.

Given the area I currently work in the numbers side will be ok to figure out. At the minute we are trying to see if Atlanta needs another gym. This one would not be a franchise, it would be something we would start from scratch ourselves.

Any help / advice is appreciated!

I think a good idea would be to contact as many gyms in the area and talk to them. It may be difficult to get your competitors to dish out their juicy bits of information so you may have to fib a little bit for them to cooperate.

[OliMint]

Thanks for your advice Michael.

We are hoping to do a tour straight away of what's out there to see what the competition has to offer by way of facilities, environment, atmosphere, the clientele they attract etc. I'm a big believer in research in any project you in embark on and in as many ways as possible. For the market we are looking at demographics will play a big part along with the visual inspection of existing facilities. We are confident that once our model is tested we will be able to offer a service beyond anyone in the market in that area.

Here's hoping that the dream comes true!

[getting_big]

Your local council/municipality should be your first port of call. They will have demographic information that relates to schools and public facilities. they use it to draw up bus routes and map urban growth. It might not be perfect from a commercial point of view, but it would be very useful as a step in the right direction.

[hazeldazel]

also check out your local chamber of commerce, they usually have lots of information and are very helpful.

[riverboarder]

try zipskinny.com . You can look up various zipcodes in a metropolitan area and get the skinny on demographics. You can also compare each zipcode to neighboring ones.

[OliMint]

Hey,

Thanks for the advice. I tried the Chamber of Commerce - they have a lot of good info and are really helpful. Just after having a look at ZIPskinny - fantastic site! Thanks for the link :-)