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Permalink Reply by Jared Rutledge on July 8, 2010 at 7:39am

when i started someone told me 1% of traffic can reasonably be expected to stop by? we had a traffic count of 12,000 cars on the road we face, and we had about 60 customers average the first month or two. so that's 0.5%.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Ryan Haney on July 10, 2010 at 6:25am

You may want to check out some books on urban economics. I believe I remember seeing some equations or relationships that relate similar variables in my Master's class I took at UD. Urban economics deals highly in how people are moved from place to place and how businesses arise accordingly, thus traffic flow to adjacent properties vs. actual transactions should have a fairly simple relationship. You may also want to find a study on foot traffic in the area as well as at our coffee shop, most of our business comes not from actual roadway traffic but from adjacent businesses bringing in foot traffic. So a study for such a coffee shop should account for these businesses and the amount of people that are working in the immediate walking area. Travel times for furthest walk to the coffee shop would need to be accounted for as this will affect foot traffic as well. Another contributing factor will be accessibility to your business (i.e. parking, meter maids slamming people with tickets frequently etc.). Just some food for thought that traffic counts will not necessarily be a directly proportional relationship and that additional studies should be performed.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Shipley on July 10, 2010 at 7:17pm

I think that 1% is a reasonable number to start from for a business plan, if you cant survive on 1% of daily traffic then your costs are out of line. I think there is a lot more to it than simply traffic count. Ease of access and visibility are paramount if you are relying on automobile traffic. Other factors come into play if you mix in walking traffic or a destination of some sort. The other thing to think about is what sustains you throughout the rest of the day. Who can take a 15 of 20 minute break and come by for a cuppa?

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