Question: Jennifer Pisano just applied for a bank loan to finance an Italian restaurant she wants to launch. When visiting with the banker about the loan application, she was asked if she had conducted any primary research to assess the feasibility of her proposed business. Jennifer replied that she had spent many, many evenings and weekends in the library and on the Internet collecting information about restaurants in general and Italian restaurants in particular.
She further noted that the information she had collected through these efforts increased her confidence that she could open and operate a successful restaurant. One reason for her confidence, Jennifer noted to the banker, was that her library and Internet searches were carefully conducted in ways that allowed her to verify that Italian restaurants did well in demographic areas that are similar to the one in which she wants to open her business. If you were the banker, what would you say to Jennifer in response to her comments?