Is it too early to be talking about New Year’s resolutions? Well if you’ve always wanted to start your own business it’s not.
The old saying – it takes 6 years to create an overnight success! Starting a business requires planning and planning starts with research. And research takes time.
Market research can help you avoid mistakes and ideally make you feel confident that your business will be viable.
Your potential customers can be identified and you can uncover data on the potential market size, demographics, psychographics, pricing, market niche, benefits and features customers want, purchasing habits, and information about competitors. Good research will help you ensure you have a strong enough Unique Selling Proposition.
Primary research
This is the research you generate yourself to fill gaps in your knowledge you can’t get from secondary research. You can use surveys, questionnaires, face to face interviews, focus groups or competitions. You can create forms using survey monkey and google docs. Read this great article on how to do customer surveys.
Secondary research
Start with the research that has already been done. You will find a PHD on almost every topic and with the way people and organisations gather data it is usually freely available and accessible. Useful resources include: Australia Bureau of Statistics, IBIS world, Innovic, the Australian Taxation Office, industry and trade associations, social media insights, and keyword searches. And don’t forget to visit your local library for books, journals, and magazines.
Once you have decided your idea is a good one you need to make plans to start creating the foundations for your business.
Some options to get you started:
Buy my book – The Bizness Book!
Start the 30 Day Business Start-Up Course
Are you eligible for the Government’s New Enterprise Incentive Scheme?
Check out information and course available through the Federal Government State Government services such as Business Victoria.
