Market analysis
Size demand, growth, competition, and saturation before committing to a market. Establishment counts and spending normalized so large places do not win on population alone.
Explore market analysisBusiness use cases
What businesses analyze with Milou
Five recurring questions, each answered by computing over public data rather than summarizing it. Every guide names its primary sources and states what those sources cannot settle.
Guides
Pick the question you are working on
These guides describe how each analysis is actually built: the geography ladder, the measures, the tests that challenge a shortlist, and the diligence the data cannot replace.
Which guide fits your decision
Most real decisions touch more than one of these. A restaurant operator choosing between two suburbs is running a market analysis to confirm the category is growing, a site selection screen to rank trade areas, and a workforce check to see whether the shift can be staffed at a wage the model supports. The guides are separated by question, not by workflow, so start with whichever names your immediate blocker and follow the cross-links.
If the decision is about a specific address rather than a market, begin with site selection and read the section on moving from screen to diligence. Public data narrows a list of candidates; it does not approve a lease.
If you are weighing a personal move rather than a business decision, the personal decisions page covers cities, housing costs, commutes, and purchasing power.
What every guide has in common
- Named primary sourcesEach guide lists the publishers behind the measures and links to the original tables, so a figure can be checked at its source.
- Computation, not summaryThe measures are calculated across the full set of counties, tracts, or establishments in scope rather than quoted from a secondary write-up.
- Stated limitsEvery guide ends with what the evidence cannot establish, because a screening signal mistaken for a verdict is the most expensive error in this work.
How to read a Milou answer: treat the output as a prioritized set of candidates with the measures behind each position, the sensitivity to assumptions, the source dates, and the open questions. It is evidence for judgment, not a substitute for it. The methodology explains how sources are matched, how freshness is handled, and how uncertainty is reported.
Bring a real decision
Describe what you are opening, hiring for, or entering, and where you are considering. Milou finds the data, computes the analysis, and shows the sources.