The three most important features in real estate can also make or break your retail storefront, your walk-in service-business, or even your internet business if you maintain a real office.

During the bleary, exciting weeks leading up to the opening of my first business, I scoured the local cities and towns for the perfect site. At the time, I lived San Jose, the city at the heart of the Silicon Valley. My search ranged as far north as Berkley and South to Monterey, Carmel by the Sea, and beyond. Everywhere seemed flawed. Each site either placed us in close competition with larger, better-established stores or commanded too small and distant a community.

Finally, my partner came up with a beautiful solution: dots on a map. We acquired the client list from a major distributor (major enough and monopolistic enough that no existing store of any size could remain competitive without holding an account). Then we purchased a large map of the United States and a box of stickers (you know the type, the big, round, self-adhesive colored circles used to color-code file folders).

The idea was simple; everywhere there was an established store we placed a dot on the map. Then we compared population density to dot density and voilé: Albuquerque.

With 450,000 residents and a total 750,000 people in the greater market area, a comparison to the rest of the western United States indicated Albuquerque should have four to five stores. Our map indicated only two. No other city of size showed such a disparity of population to competitors.

Of course the next step was research. I went a-scouting to find out why the disparity existed, but the results were very encouraging. I discovered that two stores in the city had shut down within the past year for reasons unrelated to cash flow. (Game stores are the ultimate mom-and-pop business; a family emergency or a military spouse being reassigned is just as likely to close/move a store as profitability factors.)

Though widely outside my original search area, Albuquerque turned out to be the ideal venue for our store. The local customer base was energetic, welcoming, and restless for a new store—so much so that many happily volunteered time and even money to our start-up effort in the early days, forging a tight-nit and loyal customer base even before we opened our doors.

I cannot encourage this method enough. Any prospective entrepreneur should give this method a shot. Even if you do not rely on retail customers, the density of clients to consultants, employees to employers, or land-routes to shipping companies can all make or break your start-up. This simple, low-tech technique can create a dramatic, visual research tool that will literally draw your eye directly to the perfect site.