I put all my information into a spreadsheet as I only have data for around 160 businesses and since this is small amount of data it would be inappropriate to put all the information into a database, which is generally used for larger amounts of data and takes a long time to set up. It is also a complicated method, whereas a spreadsheet is simple to use. A spreadsheet is an extremely functional way of collating such data because you can use filters to arrange your data as you need it, this is very useful for example, if you wanted to produce as graph that shows the different types of ownerships, then you can use a filter to show only businesses that are sole traders. In a spreadsheet you can also sort the data in to order by category, this makes it easier to read the data and is very helpful, this is how I sorted my data. Here is a screenshot to show how I did it:
SCREEN SHOT
Below is a bar chart to show the different categories of businesses in Horncastle:
-
Group1:Animals Group2:Antiques/furniture/furnishings
-
Group3: Arts/ crafts/Gifts/Jewellery Group4:Building/DIY
-
Group5: Clothes/Shoes Group6: Estate Agents
-
Group7: Finance/Legal Group8: Food/Drink/Tobacco
-
Group9: Government/Council Group10: Health, hair and beauty
-
Group11: Leisure Group12: Newsagents
-
Group13: Other Group14 Supermarkets
-
Group15: Travel Agents
The graph clearly shows that group 8, Food/Drink/Tobacco is the largest category of businesses in Horncastle. This shows that most businesses in Horncastle are to do with Food/Drink/Tobacco. This must therefore mean that there is a large enough market and a large number of customers to sell to in order to sustain a successful business. As this is such a popular type of business in Horncastle, this suggests that there is a large demand/need for such businesses; therefore it would be a good idea to set up a business in Horncastle that is to do with selling Food, Drink or Tobacco because their appears to be a large amount of potential customers for this type of business in the local area. The second most popular business in Horncastle is what the town is most known for, Antiques. There is already competition for this type of business, but all of the antiques businesses in Horncastle are well established with antique dealers. It is predominantly older people that come to look at the antiques, and when they have finished looking around they might want a cup of tea or coffee and maybe something to eat. There is a busy market on Thursdays and Saturdays in Horncastle this attracts a large amount of people to the area, consequently increasing the chances of passing trade. This is why the food and drink category appears to be the largest of all the businesses in Horncastle, and would probably be the most sensible business to set up in the area.
Below is a pie chart to show all the different types of ownerships of the businesses in Horncastle:
We can see from this that in Horncastle most businesses are Sole Traders, closely followed by partnership and Plc businesses.
FINISH ANALYSING.
This bar chart below shows the different locations of all the businesses in Horncastle. As you can see, most businesses set up in the High street. This is because this is the area where most people pass through and it will therefore increase the likelihood of passing trade for your business.
I now know that there is the highest number of businesses in the High street, but I now need to know what types of businesses these are.
Here is the information I got when I filtered Finance/Legal businesses:
Most of the Financial/Legal category businesses in Horncastle are banks, which have Plc ownership. This is because there is a large catchment area to Horncastle and if there weren’t any banks in the town then people in the catchment area would have to travel to Louth or Lincoln to get to the nearest bank. There is a large range of banks because they have to compete with each other, and if only one were to set up in Horncastle and no other banks opened, then all the people in the catchment area would use that one bank as it is the closest and it would make a huge profit. In the catchment area of Horncastle there is a great number of farmers, and they are traditional and need to speak to bank managers, therefore there has to be a large range of banks in the town otherwise there would be a loss of business. If you look at the location of the Plc companies you can see that they are all in the High Street. This is the area of Horncastle where most people will pass through; this therefore means that there are more customers in this particular area of the town. As a result of this, the business rates and taxes are high, so the cost of having your business here is significantly higher than on the outskirts of the town and its mostly only the big Plc companies can afford it. This area would be too expensive for a Sole Trader or Partnership business to set up in, and as my business is going to have one of these two types of ownerships I will have to set up outside the High Street, where prices are considerably lower. This is where sole traders and partnerships are more likely to be, because of the cheaper prices. They are usually in established buildings where the mortgage has often all been paid off. These businesses will have fewer costs as a result of this; and for that reason, they will have more money coming in. They usually are well established within the area, will not have to advertise and have loyal customers; they will consequently have good will, and value the customer. This should all help to ensure that they have a steady flow of trade and so also have a secure flow of money coming into the business.
These are all very worthy reasons for my business to be in a similar location and have the same type of ownership. However because of the goodwill these businesses have it will make it hard to compete with them.
