{"id":14934,"date":"2017-06-15T15:29:26","date_gmt":"2017-06-15T14:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/?p=14934"},"modified":"2017-06-16T11:31:41","modified_gmt":"2017-06-16T10:31:41","slug":"testing-the-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/testing-the-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing the Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once you have a nifty business idea, what do you do next? Step one is to test the market \u2013 it\u2019s no good launching into a business plan before you know the answers to some crucial questions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How much demand is there for what you plan to offer; how many potential customers are there, who are they, and how much are they likely to pay for your goods or services? Who is your competition, how are they faring and what can you offer that they don\u2019t?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You need to do some reliable market research to answer these questions \u2013 and that means more than just asking around your friends and family!<\/p>\n

Market research should also be an ongoing tool used in your business once it is established, if you want to keep your customers satisfied, be alert to opportunities, make good decisions, reduce risks and stay one step ahead of the competition.<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t afford to commission professional market research, it\u2019s quite possible and practicable to \u201cdo-it-yourself\u201d.<\/p>\n

How to do Market Research<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There are two types of research that are necessary to get a full picture of the market, which will be of benefit to yourself and your investors or backers.<\/p>\n

Primary research is about gathering data about potential customers, the demand for your product or service, and the performance of your competitors.<\/p>\n

Secondary research is essentially third party research gleaned from sources already available, which will give you a wider demographic picture of the field in which your business is going to operate, and pin-point who your competition is.<\/p>\n

In targeting your research you will need to glean both quantitative (the numbers and hard facts) and qualitative (attitudes and psychology of potential customers) information.<\/p>\n

Before you begin you need to decide specifically what you need and want to know. For example:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The gender, age group, lifestyle, income band etc. of your potential customers, if you are going to do business with individuals. If your market is commercial, you will need to know the size, make-up and requirements of the businesses you plan to deal with.<\/li>\n
  2. What is the buying behaviour of your potential customers \u2013 when do they buy, how do they buy (online, through wholesalers, in a store etc.)<\/li>\n
  3. How much are your potential customers prepared to pay for your goods\/service, and what drives them to choose specific products\/services.<\/li>\n
  4. Who are your competitors in the market? What do they sell and how do they sell it?\"\"<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    A great deal of this information can be obtained from simply sitting down with your laptop and a wifi connection! There is a wealth of information available online, for example demographic information from the latest census on the Office for National Statistics website (who also run an annual business survey). Your local Chamber of Commerce or the many small business and\/or trade organisations are also a great resource, especially for quantitative and qualitative information about competitors.<\/p>\n

    When it comes to the all-important Primary Research as mentioned above you are going to have to get a bit more hands-on and engage directly with people. This sort of research in the field can also mean spending a little (but gaining a lot!).<\/p>\n

    Having carefully drawn up a list of questions it is time to put them out there. You can arrange focus groups (preferably offering some sort of incentive gift), use telephone cold-calling, stop people in the street (having approached local authorities for permission), use social media and\/or email, postal questionnaires, or online survey software like PicMonkey.<\/p>\n

    All these methods have their pros and cons as to obtaining fair and satisfactory results, but a mix of some or all is probably the best way to go.<\/p>\n

    Interpretation<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong>It may be a good idea to have a third party analyse the results of your surveys to arrive at conclusions that answer your leading questions. If you do it yourself you may be tempted to be biased in your own favour!<\/p>\n

    If you don\u2019t like the outcome \u2013 if, for example, it seems your business idea won\u2019t find a ready market \u2013 don\u2019t despair and give up. It may just be that the idea needs tweaking, and your market research should give you clues as to how and where you need to make changes or compromises. Don\u2019t be afraid of criticism \u2013 it\u2019s the pointer to success!<\/p>\n

    All being well your market research will give you confidence and act as a signpost for the way ahead, as you map out your business plan and put it into action.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Once you have a nifty business idea, what do you do next? Step one is to test the market \u2013 it\u2019s no good launching into a business plan before you know the answers to some crucial questions. How much demand is there for what you plan to offer; how many potential customers are there, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3020],"tags":[3157,3158,3152,3156,3154,3155,3160,3153,3159,3123,3007],"class_list":["post-14934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-start-ups","tag-analyse","tag-business-idea","tag-business-plan","tag-competitors","tag-market-research","tag-potential","tag-product","tag-research","tag-service","tag-start-up","tag-trade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dentons.net\/localinfo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}