Well after attending the NBBQA conference in JAX last month we are more ready than ever in our hope to open a BBQ carry-out/catering operation in our neck of the woods in northern IL. In trying to put together a business plan, the question we have is there a rule-of-thumb that can be used to project sales at an unopened location? We have all kinds of demographic data as far as households and population and income but how can you estimate the number of customers on an average day? If I know I have 40,000 people in a five mile radius is there some number I can use like "the average person visits a specific restaurant X times per month" and just multiply that times the population to estimate potential customers? Thanks for any help.
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