If you’re starting a commercial business in Calgary, or want to focus your market strategy to gain more clients or customers, then you need to understand the demographics of where you live and operate your business.
Demographics essentially include the statistics and characteristics of the population which resides in a geographical area. This includes how people are distributed by age, gender, income, education etc. It gives a business owner a lot more detailed information about the market population you want to target to help you focus your marketing strategy.
One really good place to start your research is through Calgary Economic Development which provides detailed information on the City of Calgary.
This site can provide you with detailed information such as statistics and reports on economic indicators which are current, economic business forecasts, and a detailed breakdown by industry. You can get business sector profiles on aerospace, creative services, energy, financial services, information communication technology, manufacturing, transportation and logistics, just to name a few.
You can also perform a great deal of specialized research on this site such as learning more about your business competition in specific industries.
If you need detailed information on how the workforce in Calgary is broken down, this information is also available.
Specialized research is also available to give more information focused on specific topics such as a productivity assessment report, and the Calgary office market forecast study for the year 2006 – 2025 to help you plan for expansion and long range business strategies.
Also available is a capital markets study so you can a clear picture of financing strategies for both your short and long range capitalization needs to finance and expand your business.
For instance – did you know that Calgary has 37.8 million square feet of office space in the downtown core and 23.7 million square feet of suburban and beltline office space throughout the city that covers all classes of office space?
Did you know that Calgary’s office buildings are the youngest of any major city in Canada which means high efficient building systems with healthy environmental standards?
What about finding the right employees to perform the specialized work you will need for your business. Or, what if you want to know about a particular profession to market your products or services – do you know anything about them? You can find this information here as well. From civil engineers to upholsterers and from carpenters and cabinet makers to therapy and assessment professionals.
If you want to get more demographic information about the Calgary market, a good starting place is calgaryecomonicdevelopment.com.
Another good site to help you find useful for your business can be found for demographic information in the Calgary region is found at albertacanada.com. Simply click on the business link to find some very helpful information on statistics and publications. Sample reports include anything from small business highlights to regional economic indicators.
Having a good and thorough understanding of the demographics information in Calgary can give you a good competitive edge in making your commercial enterprise prosper. Information empowers you and helps you create a better business plan for the long term.
Photo by JMacPherson
