If you aren’t aware of the UGA SBDC’s Applied Research Department, you’re missing out! We have access to four different databases including ESRI, IBISWorld, ReferenceUSA, and RMA. These databases allow our consultants to gather location based information about your neighborhood geography. Here’s a great example of how the SBDC can work for you:

Recently, the SBDC was working with a redevelopment organization in Atlanta. The organization needed data and information for several neighborhoods in a general area of the city, so, their consultant requested this information through the Applied Research Department as information regarding neighborhood geography was unable to be located since there were not official community limits. Through ESRI’s Business Analyst Online (BAO), UGA SBDC Applied Research was able to manually draw individual study area polygons around the several neighborhoods to find data for each specific neighborhood.

BAO has the capability of manually drawing custom polygons around areas of your interest to create reports.  For this client, Applied Research created reports on the individual neighborhood demographics, business summary, and a Retail Market Place Profile (shows supply/demand, retail gap, and leakage/surplus factor). The client was able to tailor their marketing project for each neighborhood based on the reports provided by BAO’s reports.

If you are interested in accessing similar information, please contact one of our 17 local offices near you.

(Source: Morgan Robinson, Research Professional, UGA SBDC State Office)