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BEHIND THE NUMBERS: Building a Plan

You probably know some of the sources. The federal government is a great repository of data (Bureau of the Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis). Vendors can often help. Publications in which you may advertise have a lot of useful data. Local governmental agencies are good, too. Personally, I like the economic development agencies—among other things, they can tell you what’s in the works. And, of course, there are plenty of commercial suppliers of data.

The important thing is to start gathering, and get in the habit of using, information relevant to the decisions you’ll be making. It’s important to organize the information—maybe keep it in a binder—so it’s available for easy reference as the need arises. And it’ll be easy to update when the time comes.

As always, my best advice is to take the time and do a proper business plan— set objectives, gather data, conduct a thorough analysis, draw conclusions, develop action plans, build the roadmap. My second best advice is that if you don’t have the time (or the inclination) to do all that, at the very least gather critical information to inform your decisions as they present themselves. You just may be able to get where you’re going without a map, but you damn well better read the road signs along the way.

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