What is the physical target market and why does it belong in a business plan for Full Service Restaurant?

The reader of a business plan for a Full Service Restaurant needs to know where the business is located so that they are able to understand what the dynamics of the target market may be like. A physical description of the target market helps put together a clear picture of the geographical areas from where the small business expects its clients to come.

How should a small business define its target market?

The answer to this question depends largely on the kind of business you are in and the areas of the local, regional or national economy you service. If you are a small business with an online presence, then your market is both regional and national. In the event you are a small machine tool shop supplying parts to a few local manufacturers then your business would be regional but your potential market could be national or even international. If you are a full service auto body shop, your business is most certainly local. We define local as being in the county in which you are located. In some cases if you are located at the outer edges of a county, you would include the next county over to make sure that you are capturing enough of the target market. In the event you are a small business located in a remote or rural part of the county, you may have customers driving from two or three counties away for your product or service.

Why should the physical demarcation for a business like A Touch of Tuscany be Westchester County, New York and not a 5 mile radius?

There is nothing to stop you from using the 5 mile radius demarcation and some data services may even offer you the target market demographic information that you desire about your target market using the 5, 10 and 25 mile radius limits. However in the business plans that we have put together, we try to ensure that the data used is government data that is available to all users without an extra cost associated with the data.

What physical attributes about the target market should I describe?

Just as we recommend to Jack Gordon of A Touch of Tuscany, we recommend that you take this opportunity to describe to the reader of the business plan just what your target market is all about in broad terms. We will be getting into the specific geographic and industry analysis later, but here we think that a bank or potential partner would like to get a sense about the county or counties that you are doing business in just like Westchester County in the case of A Touch of Tuscany How far is the business from a major metropolitan area? Is the business located in the middle of a major metropolitan area? What is the physical size of the county? How many major roadways traverse the target market? Is there good physical infrastructure and technology for a small business to flourish in the target market?

Where can I find information on the physical attributes of a target market like Westchester County, New York?

Most State government websites like the one for New York in the this plan for A Touch of Tuscany, have a fairly large and informative website that will give you plenty of information on the local county governments. Many times you will also find a link to the county government's website from the State government website. The good folks at Wikipedia also provide an excellent venue to do research on the physical description of almost any county in the United States. In the event your target market covers two or more counties, we recommend that you mention each county seperately and then give the readers of the plan an idea of how much business you expect from each county.

Quick Links:

1. Go to the Corresponding Business Plan section for this industry.