me trying to understand why some businesses thrive while others flop
okay but seriously, i've been down this rabbit hole of analyzing local businesses and it's actually fascinating??
like, you know when you walk past that one restaurant that's ALWAYS empty but somehow still exists? meanwhile the place next door has lines out the door? there's always a story behind it and most of the time it's not what you'd expect.
started this whole journey because i was curious about opening something in my area but didn't want to just... guess? like who has money to waste on bad location decisions in this economy 💸
the plot twist: turns out most of the answers are hiding in plain sight on review sites. people literally tell you EVERYTHING in yelp reviews. what they love, what they hate, what's missing, what they'd pay more for.
but omg going through hundreds of business listings manually is actual torture. spent entire weekends just copy-pasting info into spreadsheets like some kind of data entry ghost 👻
then i found this thing: yelp business details scraper that basically does all that soul-crushing data collection for you??
game. changer.
now i can pull info on like 500+ businesses in an hour instead of crying over my laptop for weeks. ratings, reviews, contact info, everything organized and ready to analyze.
what i've learned so far:
location matters but not how you think it does
customer service complaints follow VERY predictable patterns
pricing isn't usually the real issue (it's convenience/experience)
some neighborhoods are weirdly underserved for no apparent reason
honestly this whole deep dive has me looking at every business differently now. like i'll walk into a coffee shop and immediately start analyzing their flow, their menu placement, what people are complaining about on their phone calls...
is this what business school does to people?? 😅
anyway if you're thinking about starting something or just curious about why your favorite local spot suddenly closed, diving into the data is actually pretty addictive. just saying.
#marketresearch #smallbusiness #entrepreneur #datanerd #localbusiness #yelpreviews #businessanalysis #startuplife