When you get the opportunity to chat with most successful business owners one of the things you get to find out is that they have made a lot of mistakes.
You would also find out that most of those mistakes could have been avoided if they have put something’s in place before venturing into the business.
The crazy thing about making mistakes when running a business is that you would end up wasting lots of time and resources before finally getting things right.
All those time and resources could have been avoided if only a proper market research was carried out before starting the business.
Most people rush into starting a business without having to seat down to count the cost, know how wide an audience that needs the products or services their business offers, where the business should be located etc. and after a while the business ends up closing because of lack of preparation.
For you to succeed in any business, you must first know who your targeted customers are before providing the products or services they need.
Not minding the kind of business you intend to start whether it’s an online or offline business it is a must you conduct a market research about that business before starting.
So then
What Is A Market Research?
A market research in simple terms is the process of getting to know more about your business industry, identify who your targeted customers are, where they hang out, what they like and who your competitors are. It is simply getting to know the best way to get into the market.
For every business to succeed a large customer base is required so market research also helps you know how wide the market is for your business.
The risk of failing in any business is reduced by half if a proper market research is carried out before the start of that business.
Carrying out marketing research is useful for both new and existing businesses and should be carried out on a regular basis to get new ideas on how to improve your business.
How Can Market Research Affect your Business?
Believe me when you carry out a market research before starting any business you are sure of the following:
Save time and resources
Write an accurate business plan
Know more about your competitors
Get a broader view of the business
I know by now you would be thinking carrying out a market research would be a hectic job but it’s not.
In this article I will highlight ways to carry out a market research
How To Carry Out A Market Research
Identify Your Target Market
For every business to succeed, they must be solving at least one problem. Identifying your Target market requires you to know where your customers are located, their age range, where they spend most of their time and what products and services appeals to them.
This can be done in two ways
Open Research
Carrying out an open research involves you reaching out to your customers face to face. If you as shy as I am, you might find it difficult to have a face to face conversation with potential customers but if the business mean a lot to you, you will do it.
This will help you know how profitable your business would be in the future. It does not matter if you know or don’t know the people just go out and have a one on one conversation with them.
You might not get as much information as you need by only having a face to face conversation so doing more research is needed which is why have to do online survey is also necessary. You can use good online survey platforms such as Google forms , survey planet, surveymonkey etc. to help you get more information to make up your market research.
Secondary Market Research
When you have gotten to know your potential customers and how to reach them, the next thing for you to do is get to know more about your competitors. There is absolutely no idea that is new so in any business or industry you decide to go into there is either one or more persons in that business and they are your competitors.
Doing a market research on your competitors will make you learn more on how they operate, their price range, how they brand themselves and also how they have been able to survive this long.
Using the internet is also a great way to do market research. This will enable you know how wide the industry you are in is. As an entrepreneur one of the online tools I use for any research purpose is Google Trends.
This tool shows you how wide the market is, which state you can find large customers, the kind of products you can offer etc.
You can also use Government census to get statistical data and information on the market size.
Conclusion
This might look like a difficult thing to do before starting your business but I must tell you it is very crucial that you conduct a market research before starting any business. All you have to do is follow this principle and create a questionnaire that you can use for a face to face research and online survey. Your business has more chances of succeeding when you first take a market research.
source: http://naijahowtozone.com.ng