Who is the speaker most likely addressing?

You really need to do your homework before opening a new business. My suggestion is to get your hands on as much basic data as you can about the community where you plan to set up shop. Good sources of data include federal, state, and local governments. Governments need to know a lot about the populations they serve, so they periodically collect data through surveys and census programs. They collect data about all sorts of things, including age, family size, household income, education levels—all sorts of things. And the data is available to the public through various government offices. Now, using all this information, you can put together a picture of the demographics of your potential customers. This can be very valuable in helping you to determine whether your business is likely to succeed in a particular area.