Data analysis · Chapel Hill, NC
Data analysis for Chapel Hill and Franklin Street businesses
A Chapel Hill business rides the university year. We help you measure how much of your income follows the academic calendar and how much stays steady when students leave.
Chapel Hill data analysis on the academic calendar
UNC is a major part of the town's economy, and Franklin Street fills and empties with the term. A shop there can look fine in October and thin in July, then wonder whether the dip is normal. We sort your sales by week and tag each week as term, break or event.
Then we compare the groups with one measure, orders per open day, and show the sample size beside it.
The finished answer fits one page: the question, a small table by week type, and a sentence on how much to trust it. An owner deciding on summer hours or a part-time hire can read it in a few minutes and act.
Separating students from residents
Many owners suspect that residents, hospital staff and faculty keep them going between terms. The suspicion deserves a test. If your records show which orders came from a campus address or a student email and which did not, we split them and compare average order.
Without that field, we look at timing instead: orders in the weeks after students leave. It is a rougher read, and we tell you how rough.
What Festifall does for a Chapel Hill shop
In 2022 Festifall closed Church Street to traffic on three October Saturdays and ran a vendor market on Franklin Street. We measure orders on those Saturdays against the October Saturdays without it, leaving out unusual weather when you have noted it.
The Durham Tech Small Business Center keeps an Orange County site on Rosemary Street with free, confidential counseling, and the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership runs business support. Bring them the result.
Health care and services off Franklin Street
UNC Health Care and professional services are large sectors in town. A tutor, a therapist's front desk or a medical supplier can ask which referral partner sends repeat customers. We answer it the same way: a source tag, a rate, the formula.
Questions from Chapel Hill owners
My business closes in August. Can analysis still help?
Yes. Closed weeks stay out of the per-day math, and we compare only open days. We also show the share of the year that each season provides.
Do you handle data with student names in it?
We work on the fields the question needs. Names are rarely among them, so you can remove them before sending.
How do I know the result is not a fluke?
We report the sample size and say when it is too small. A few strong weeks are labeled as a few strong weeks.
Sources for the facts on this page: Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Wikipedia · Festifall Arts Markets return to downtown Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill Community Arts & Culture · Small Business Center, Durham Technical Community College
Bring Chapel Hill's term-time puzzle to a call
Book a free call of 15 or 30 minutes on the contact page. If you prefer to meet in person, say so in the form.