SMBFinder (Smart Microbusiness Finder) is a data-driven dashboard designed to help entrepreneurs and microbusiness owners identify optimal locations to start their business across the United States. Users can visualize microbusiness density through a heatmap, filter data by state and county, and analyze historical trends in microbusiness growth. The dashboard provides insights into competition levels, median income trends, and other key business indicators – Sellability index, Growth index and Hireability index. Users can leverage these insights to make informed decisions, reduce risks, and strategically expand their business in the most promising locations.

This document introduces the project, its purpose, and how you can get involved—whether as a user, contributor, or developer. Jump to one of the sections below to learn more:

• What are we doing? (And why?)
• Who are we?
• What do we need?
• How can you get involved?
• Get in touch
• Find out more

Starting a microbusiness can be challenging due to the lack of accessible, data-driven insights about location suitability. Entrepreneurs often struggle to find the best places to start or expand their business based on competition levels, economic conditions, and workforce availability.

SMBFinder provides an interactive dashboard that allows users to:

• Explore microbusiness density over time.
• Identify high-potential locations through heatmaps.
• Analyze trends across different economic and demographic indicators.

By providing a structured data-driven approach, SMBFinder helps business owners, policymakers, and investors understand key trends and make informed choices about where to establish or grow their businesses.

The SMBFinder project is developed by a team of Master of Data Science Students at University of British Columbia. Contributors include Anna Nandar, Dongchun Chen, Jiayi Li, and Marek Boulerice, as part of the UBC DSCI 532 Data Visualization II project.

We welcome contributions in various areas, including:

• Data Science & Engineering: Improving data collection, aggregation, and analysis.
• Web Development: Enhancing dashboard functionality and scalability.
• Economic Research: Providing context for better interpretation of business indicators.
• Community Outreach: Engaging with business owners and policymakers.

If you have experience in any of these areas (or others we haven’t considered yet!), we’d love your input!

Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, Investors, and Economic Policymakers.

SMBFinder Dashboard

Use this dashboard to explore microbusiness trends, analyze location data, and support informed decision-making.

Read our Contributing Guide to get started!

git clone https://github.com/UBC-MDS/DSCI-532_2025_26_SMBFinder.git
cd your-repo-folder

pip install -r requirements.txt

python -m src.app

• Report issues or suggest enhancements in GitHub Issues: SMBFinder Issues
• Share feedback on documentation and dataset usage.

This project utilizes data from GoDaddy – Microbusiness Density Forecasting (Kaggle).

SMBFinder was created by Anna Nandar, Dongchun Chen, Jiayi Li and Marek Boulerice. It is licensed under the terms of the MIT license.

Thank you for your interest and support! Let’s use data to empower small businesses and drive economic growth.