Trying to figure out where to start your business?

Aside from taxes, market for you product, and personal preference, what should drive you to open your business in a particular location?  It's a good question, and the answer these days may only be a click away...  

The United States Census is a government organization that has been in place since 1790.  Via Census.gov (http://www.census.gov/about/what.html), the mission of the Census bureau is "to serve as the leading source of quality data about the nation's people and economy."  The goal of the Census is to "provide the best mix of timeliness, relevancy, quality and cost for the data we collect and services we provide".  

How does this over-funded government program actually help out an entrepreneur? : )  If the answer isn't clear yet, that's ok...we all get lost sometimes trying to figure out exactly what it is that the government does!     

Among the many functions of the Census Bureau, one task is to track National, State, and County population growth trends.  These tracking statistics are available to general public, and can assist an entrepreneur in identifying potential growing markets.  Click here for the latest estimates of resident population change for incorporated places of 50,000 or more.

From this data, we see that the fastest growing city over the last 5 years has been South Jordan City, Utah.  According to the collected data, South Jordan has grown by 32%...from 50k to 66k residents! That is huge growth in a short amount of time, but does that necessarily mean that you should go open up your business in South Jordan City?  Well, not necessarily.  Depending on your business, a city size of 66k may not support the type of business you plan to open, especially if you are aimed at selling to a niche market.  

Lacrosse gear for example, while quite dependent on region already, is still a relatively small market in terms of a national footprint when compared with other sports like baseball, football, soccer, etc.  Let's say that the average sample of the US population interested in lacrosse is 1%.  For South Jordan, that comes out to 660 potential customers.  Can 660 potential customers support you business?

Let's compare South Jordan to a major metropolitan area, in this case, Denver City, Colorado.  Denver is the 34th fastest growing city; a 13.8% positive population increase during that same time frame.  Even though this is significantly smaller growth, the population grew from 600k to 683k!  That growth of 83k residents is nearly 20k residents bigger than the entire population of South Jordan.  So while the growth is not as significant, the customer potential is far greater.  

The Census Bureau tracks a ton of data, even at the state level  You don't have to marry it, but explore it just a bit, especially if you are undecided on where it is you would like to open your new business.