Answer the following questions to determine the size of the market you're targeting:
Source: www.businesspartners.co.za

Where your market is an identified community living in a defined area

If your market is a community of people living within, say a 4 km radius of your place of business, your shop, then a simple method of estimating the population is to find out the number of houses or families in the area. This information can, in most cases, be obtained from the municipality.

If you are able to ascertain how many households fall within your target area, then by allocating an average number of people per household, which is usually available from local authorities, you can ascertain the population figure.

Bear in mind of course what we said earlier regarding whether your market comprises of male or female customers, etc.

Where your market is scattered over an entire city or country

In this case, it is worth seeking information from organisations such as the Bureau of Market Research at UNISA or other bureaus and institutions who carry out economics and market surveys.

The sort of information supplied includes data on the average percentage of income that is spent by a family on different commodities for separate regions. Economically active population figures can usually be provided by such organisations.