We haven’t written a blog on  business analytics for a bit long time. But we always believe that big data/ data analytics is a powerful tool to look at things differently and gain competitive advantage in business, particularly for small businesses.

PrivCap LLC, based in New York, is a  company specialized in delivering premium content  for private equity and institutional real estate. On its recent “ REAL ESTATE Investment Excellence 2016 Report ” , it raised a very interesting point in real estate investment. When it comes down to due diligence on the big real estate deal,  “investors need to look to new data sources –including taxi and Citi Bike data to buy their next property in New York rather than relying on historical leasing and sale comp data. “Due diligence is  an investigation of a business prior to acquisition. Generally speaking, due diligence focuses on accuracy of accounting data, undisclosed legal/tax obligation, etc.

Why? 

Why do investors have to look at taxi and bike data?

The reason is simple? The data, for example, taxi data like average drop-off time on Saturday nights in front of the property, may indicate that the career stage where tenants are at.  “The person who goes out and comes home at 1 a.m. on Saturday night is probably a little bit older, probably a little bit further along in their career than the person who goes out until 3 a.m.” Those new sources of data provides insight to the real estate acquisition. Investors are looking for steady  rental income cash flow. Those tenants at stable career stage obviously are the better tenants from financial perspective. Therefore, the better/the deeper depth that you understand the business than your peers, the better you are prepared when the next opportunity knocks the door.

Obviously we are not in New York. So, what we can learn in Canada then?

A lot of small business look for opportunities to grow. Where to find opportunities? Here is a simple example.

York Region is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada. It includes Aurora, East Gwillimbury, Georgina,King,Markham.etc. If you run the business in this area, you likely want to know the growth plan and see if you can attract prospective clients in this area. One of the new source of data is from local region’s long range planning report. Here is the link. It gives you a lot of insights. The residential analysis section of this report reviews foretasted household and unit growth (demand) against the existing long term supply of lands designated to accommodate residential growth up to 2036.

If the residential units are planned to grow average 3% annually from now till 2036, it means average 36k population/9k units are added to the region annually. What does it mean to your business? That means there is huge demand in various services, like childcare, trades, medical service, etc. If you look at it closely, you will notice  the faster growth in particular municipalities are East Gwillimbury and King. Bingo. You find gold! The data sheds light in the future development in this area. Plan ahead and start locating your prospective customers. Furthermore , look around your business/industry/boundary, you may be surprised the new sources of data nearby may help move your business from “instinct-driven” to “insight-driven” .

Happy small business!