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Introduction

Background information on Cookstown Cookstown is situated in the centre of Northern Ireland providing an excellent location for retailers and investors. It is easily accessible due to this central location. Cookstown has a population of 32,000 and covers 235 square miles making it the 11th largest district within Northern Ireland. The town boasts the longest and widest main street in the province providing one mile of complete shopping from High street names to family run businesses. It is also famous for having the most successful weekly outdoor market in Northern Ireland. Approximately 13,500 vehicles travel through Cookstown on a daily basis this should provide a lot of additional custom. Cookstown has already a very strong economy established. All of these factors secure an excellent location for me to set up my business. Market Research Introduction The aim of this investigation is to determine what type of business / shop the people of Cookstown would like to see open. I will be assuming the role of a business person hoping to open a successful business in the town. All businesses carry out market research to provide them with essential information on a range of factors such as customers, competition and market trends. The more they know about these the more successful their product will be and the lower the risk of failure. In order to find out what type of business / shop the people of Cookstown district would like to see open, I will carry out both primary and secondary research. Primary research is the process of obtaining information that has not yet been collected. My primary research will be in the form of questionnaires. This is a series of structured questions used in obtaining information; in my case it is what type of business the people of Cookstown District want to see open. From my questionnaire I hopefully will find the preferred shop and also the amount people are willing to spend in this shop. ...read more.

Middle

This would lead me to believe that it would be possible to make a success of this type of business. I was able to construct a pie chart using the results from my spreadsheet, a copy of which is shown on page 32. The pie chart helps illustrates the varying amounts of money that people in Cookstown would be prepared to spend in a gift shop on any one occasion. From the pie chart it is clear that the majority of people would be willing to spend between ten and twenty five pounds. For my final filter I decided to compare gender responses. My filter results showed that four males compared to thirteen females chose a gift shop as the preferred shop to be open in the district of Cookstown. This gives a clear indication to the style and variety of stock that should be purchased for the gift shop. Therefore the sector of the market I will be focusing on will be females. Overall a gift shop seems to be the most popular choice amongst the survey. With a large amount surveyed saying that they would visit only on special occasions the product needs to be imaginative and high quality but not too expensive as the survey also indicated that the maximum amount spent in the shop would be �25. With this in mind I would suggest opening the shop around October November time to deal with the Christmas rush that would help in the revenue side and also the customer loyalty side. Findings from Secondary Research Using the information I obtained from my secondary research I was able to carry out a S.W.O.T analysis (page 41). This helps me to clearly illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of setting up a business in Cookstown. I carried out secondary research to get an insight into the demography of Cookstown and the surrounding areas. I obtained this information from my local council (See appendix 2) ...read more.

Conclusion

Property two needs extensive refurbishment and the costs would be too excessive for a sole trader. There are three floors two of which could be used for apartments but as previously mentioned the costs are very high and there are not many retailers near the premise attracting potential customers for my gift shop. Property three is close to the main street which would attract customers but it's downfall was the size of the building. Expansion isn't an option and there is no storage space at all, floor space is also limited. Therefore this property is definitely not suitable for my business. Property four is too far away from the main street and there is also a lack of parking facilities for customers. This shop was also quickly ruled out for placing the business. Property five was the best option for storage and also for future development. The downfall of this particular premise was the price. �400,000 is just too expensive for me setting up a business as a sole trader. Although my chosen property is not located on the main street I still feel it is within acceptable distance from the main shopping area of the town. This property has the most parking facilities compared to the other properties and there is also a car park nearby and I consider this very important in attracting customers. Another strong advantage of choosing this property is that the existing living accommodation could be rented out as apartments generating more revenue which could be important if there are start up problems with the business. These apartments are already fully fitted and therefore no additional work will be required. After deciding where to locate my business all that is left for me to do is open the doors for business! Conclusion The property I have chosen is in an ideal area within the town itself. I have found there to be no existing shops matching this specific criteria of my Gift shop in the local area. Therefore competition level will very low. This should increase the success of my business. ...read more.

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