How do you get data about seasonal impacts on your business?
I intend to start up a business in skating and roller hockey in Toronto, Canada and would like to know the peak and off peak periods in order to plan for business development. How do I come across this data?
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Jun 20, 2014
Analytics , Google, Aweber, Get Response or a number of other systems, which will give you live time analysis. Go to the city's web pages, get their take on the sport demographics. Local forums, even the professional teams have information on the high and low times of ticket sales.
Jun 19, 2014
Hesham,
I agree with Jeff. Talk to as many people as you can who are already using these facilities in Toronto. Talk to retailers that sell skating and roller hockey equipment to determine what their peak and down times are.
Depending upon your target market, talk to a group of parents about what they'd like to see in a skating and roller hockey business. If they're schlepping their kids to and from these programs, you can best believe they have some ideas for you. I did not look online for parent groups but there have got to be some in Toronto.
You could also talk to school coaches about their programs and when their peak and down times are.
'Down' time may just be the time when you are working the hardest to promote your new business. Good luck!
Jun 17, 2014
Try to diversify your business for season and look for another cities or even foreign countries to avoid any season effects on the business. Excellent marketing strategies and marketing study would keep you away from your question. Right marketing could keep the business years around. Do the homework. Pradeep Berry
Jun 14, 2014
Hi Hesham, you have great comments.
If I could add to this, I would suggest that you also look at what the competition is doing during the "Off session"
Then considering your business see what you can offer that is different.
Jun 14, 2014
There must be an association for this industry as there is for other sporting events in Canada. They should publish statistics on the peak and off peak periods for these activities. I would also determine who else is offering similar services and see what they say on their web sites about seasonality. Lastly, is there anyone interested in selling their skating and roller hockey business? They should be the best source of information and maybe the best way for you to go instead of starting from scratch.
Jun 13, 2014
Hello Hesham , Its not difficult to get any data for any business , For seasonal business you have to search for either the association of these seasonal impacts ,for sure they must be organized under unity or association or they must be represented in chamber of commerce as unit of traders working under them .
Jun 13, 2014
Google Adwords has a keyword planner. When you enter your list of keywords, it produces a graphical representation of keyword searches on a month-by-month basis. No, your ideal advertising model might not be online, but it will give you the data you need in terms of seasonal swing.
Jun 13, 2014
Check local sporting goods stores and skating rinks. Also, look for local leagues and their schedules.
Jun 13, 2014
Dashboards and weekly tracking (in retail especially) once you are going for accurate projections. See: http://www.airtightmgt.com/what-is-airtight-management/dashboards-and-metrics.html
In this situation with no history I would say you need to look at similar businesses. Here you will see large variation by weather, especially on weekend when more options are available. Alternately invite other owners to lunch or call them in non-competitive geographies. You would surprised how many would be glad to help. You might even form a virtual "CEO Roundtable" of skating rink owners with them to share ideas, data, problems and solutions to improve each other's businesses.
Odds are there is also some national organization that compiles industry data you can join or get reports from. Good luck.
Jun 14, 2014
Bob, "CEO Roundtable" is an amazing idea and already added to my ' Things to do" list. Thank you very much.
Jun 13, 2014
The best data is your own data. You can find out seasonal impact of your business from looking into your own web analytics data and combining it with your business data such as ones you get from accounting or inventory etc. You can then use business intelligence tools such as Tableau or Microsoft Power BI to make sense of the data. External sources of data is not really accurate.
Jun 13, 2014
If you plan correctly you should do well most do good year around. Follow school schedules college and high schools. They are great barometers for is type of business. Over big sports events will impact your business it b good and bad. I would suggest contacting schools to rent your place on fortunes for practice. Best of success. Gil
Jun 13, 2014
Given that the majority of people search on-line prior to purchase , I would recommend you get search engine seasonality data on the keywords you plan to use to capture Internet traffic.
If you need help on keyword research, let me know
Jun 12, 2014
Hesham ... The best way to learn about your target audience and market is to go talk to them.
A very quick Google search 'Roller Hockey Toronto' gives you this http://bit.ly/1xRw4qO. There looks to be a very health and active roller hockey community in the Toronto area. So there are plenty of people to talk to, like the league president, team managers, etc.
Go talk to your prospective competitors, but don't tell them what you plan to do. Just strike up a conversation and listen to them. You'll be surprised what business intelligence they'll give you. Before talking to them check out their websites — they will tell you a lot about peak seasons just by looking at their hours.
Jun 12, 2014
Jeff, thank you so much. In fact, I have done a visit for one competitor and learned a lot about their roller sports business. I am actually initiating a new activity here which is quad roller hockey, this is not really an active sport in Toronto like the Ice hockey and that is why difficult to know. However, I will look again at their hours as you advised and I still can get a general perception from the traffic time to the Ice hockey.
Jun 12, 2014
Hesham ... Typically, services like this will have different hours during down times or off peak then they will during peak season. Traditionally roller hockey season is during the summer months — June, July, August, maybe September. If you check out the various roller hockey leagues and their schedules you'll be able to find information.
You may also want to check with the manufacturers of quad roller hockey skates and the local sporting good stores to see when the sales of these types of skates are at a peak.
Jun 13, 2014
Dead on Jeff! Another thing about talking to the target audience is that you can also line up your customers in advance. Involving them in the process of developing your service is an old consulting trick that leads to great wins.
Jun 14, 2014
Andrew Pike, I hear you very well and indeed I am working on a customer survey to help me build potential customers. I wanna use the moment of world cup show with hundreds of attendees at the public square in my city to have this done. Any directions or template survey on this point will be very appreciated. Thanks
Jun 14, 2014
Hesham ... Your survey needs to be a combination of multiple choice and open ended so you can build a dialogue. Start with questions that you specifically want to have answers to. But, first I would search Google for available data from existing resources and reports. From that insight you can craft your questions for your business.
Now keep in mind the more questions you ask the greater the 'reward' incentive is that you have to offer. I would first go to SurveyMonkey and use their audience members to run your survey. You can develop a series of criteria to narrow their audience to those you need insight from.
After you get their feedback. Then you can do one on one interviews with key members of your target audience.
If you use SurveyMonkey or sister company Zoomerang, they maybe able to help you develop questions.
There are multiple trade associations in the United States with respect to the sports and fitness industry. They include:
National Sporting Goods Association
National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers
Sports & Fitness Industry Association
In Canada, there is Canadian Sporting Goods Association
All of these associations have a vast array of market research and reports. Some free. Most paid.