Creating Sales Forecasts

Try building a market research phone tree. Start calling people who might be able to help you. For each person you talk to who can't help, ask for the name of someone who can. Each call gives you either information or a lead on where to get information.

You can also try calling somebody with a similar business in another city. If you live in South Bend, Ind., for instance, call somebody from Madison, Wis. or Ann Arbor, Mich. Tell them the truth -- you're developing a business plan and you'd like to talk to them about it.

The shoe store in Ann Arbor doesn't compete with your store in South Bend, so you can ask questions freely. Most people like to talk about their business. Get them started, and it's usually hard to get them to stop.

Get sales data where you can. There are plenty of resources out there. For example, you can do an online search for "sales per square foot." If you're developing a plan for a retail store, you can get some clue as to what sales might be by looking at other businesses' sales per square foot.

Remember, this is just an early estimate. Consider why your results might be different from the norm.

Aside from sales information, there's also more general financial information available. You can find other financial profiles like standard gross margins, pre-tax profits and standard balance sheet ratios.