By Dan Boudreau

If you’re starting a business, you’ll want to know what the industry standards are. “Industry standards” are generally accepted methods, norms or benchmarks you can use to chart your own business path. For example, when setting prices for your products or services, you’ll want to keep one eye on your competitor’s prices as you set your own.

Industry standards are created through the efforts of many business owners over time. They are important to business owners because they represent market intelligence in the bigger picture, and enable us to learn what’s working already in the marketplace.

Here are a few ways to find information on the industry standards for your business.

1. Your Experience. Don’t underestimate your experience and knowledge about your business. Consider what you already know about how products and services are bought and sold in the industry you’re getting into.
2. Research Competitors. Track down the major competitors in your industry, visit their websites, obtain their marketing materials and any other pricing information you can access. Learn how they arrange their products and how they communicate their offerings to customers.
3. Search Engines. Search engines continue to get more powerful and more effective at retrieving information. Do keyword searches that include terms such as “norms” or “standards” and the name of your business or industry.
4. Trade Publications. Easily found at your local library, search through articles and ads for clues on industry standards.
5. Business Guides. Search local economic and business development agencies for business guides and other publications with local and regional business information.
6. Associations. Look for newsletters, websites, articles and workshops. If you don’t find what you’re looking for at their website, a phone call or email might get better results.
7. Census Websites. Search your local census websites like www.statscan.gc.ca or www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca. If you have difficulty locating relevant and useful information at the site, don’t hesitate to contact the agency via the contact links and ask for assistance. I’ve contacted them on a number of occasions and found them to be very helpful.
8. Free Studies and Reports. Feasibility studies and market analyses are sometimes made public. The best way to obtain reports or studies is to contact the local university or agencies, or to search for the documents on the Internet.
9. Commercial Sources. First Research and BizMiner analyze thousands of businesses and industries, and make their reports available at reasonable prices. BizMiner (www.bizminer.com) reports on more than 16,000 lines of business with specific trends analysis reports for every US market area down to the zip code. Although US focussed, the BizMiner reports can still be very useful for those researching Canadian businesses. First Research (www.firstresearch.com) offers market analysis tools—they synthesize hundreds of sources into succinct formats.
10. Surveys and Interviews. While broad-based market data and information from non-local sources can be helpful, you’ll definitely want to narrow your search to learn what the norms are in the local marketplace. This is best done by talking to knowledgeable people in the local area.

Industry standards will help prepare you to start or grow your business. You can get the information from the variety of sources for norms such as legal structure, wages, prices, taxes, hiring, and financial practices. No matter what type of business, the industry standards will serve as indispensible benchmarks from which to make the many decisions needed to start or grow your business.