Halloween Makes Good Business!

Halloween is now the United States second most popular holiday (after Christmas) for decorating; the sale of candy and costumes are also extremely common during the holiday, which is marketed to children and adults alike.

Halloween candy sales average about 2 BILLION dollars annually in the United States.

Because the holiday comes in the wake of the annual apple harvest, candy apple (also known as toffee, taffy, or caramel apples) are a common holiday treat cashing in at 1 million pounds of apples sold annually during this holiday season!

There is little primary documentation of masking or costuming on Halloween in the United States or elsewhere, before 1900. Mass produced Halloween costumes did not appear in stores until the 1930's, and trick-or-treating did not become a fixture of the holiday until the 1950's. Today the art of "scare" has grown to a 42 billion dollar industry with costumes, decorations, candy sales, and everything else that goes spook in the night annually across the United States!

It seems to make good business sense to tap into this growing market place. The industry has seen incredible growth over the past 10 years and is predicted to grow an whopping 24% more over the next 5! Not a lot of industries can claim that much growth in such a short period of time!

Find Your N.A.I.C.S. Code For FREE!

The government doesn't recognize you as John's Pizza Shop, rather when it comes down to government funding they place "your business" into a category and igve it an allocated number. So when Uncle Sam say's we have funding for businesses in groups 121212, 111111, 123456, etc if your business is within that industry profile, you may apply for certian government grants, loans, and subsidies. It's extremely easy and fast to figure out your NAICS (North American Industry Calssification System) code.... Simply go to this site and search yours for free...

WWW.NAICS.COM

Demographic's 101

The Marketing section of your business plan isn't complete without REAL up to date demographics of the population in your marketing area. So how does one find up to date and current populous info? Check out these TWO free websites and download your demographical information now!

WWW.MELISSADATA.COM & WWW.CENSUS.GOV

Both sites are free to use and offer a ton of demographical information!