Market Research

Knowing if there is a demand for your business may be hard to assess. Small business success is based upon the ability to cultivate and develop a loyal customer base. You must focus your efforts on identifying, satisfying and following up on the customer’s needs. To reduce the risk of starting a new business, you can do market research. Although research cannot guarantee success in your business, it can improve your chances by estimating sales potential and avoiding losses caused by lack of responsiveness to market demand.

Before You Start: Before investing your time and money in a market research study, there are a number of things you should consider to help you determine what your customers want:

• Who will purchase the product or service?
• Who makes the buying decisions?
• What is the current demand?
• What other products or services currently satisfy that demand?
• How many companies provide those products or services?
• When is the product purchased?
• Why is it seasonal?
• Where is the product purchased?
• Where is the buying decision made?
• How does the potential customer buy the product now?
• Will that customer buy the product again?
• How are purchases financed or serviced?