Welcome to the market research steps of the RoadMap. Now that you are equipped for business planning it’s time to embrace market research.
Market research is the process of educating yourself about your business. It includes everything you do to prove or disprove your business case.
The most common reason for failure in business is insufficient market research. Most unsuccessful business plans fail because of weak or ineffective market research. There can be several reasons for this:
- Market research isn’t easy.
- For most people, market research is unfamiliar, daunting work.
- The goals of market research are not clear to those who have not previously done it.
- To be effective at researching your market, you have to get out and talk with real people who might challenge or not agree with your ideas.
- The researching process is a sea of change from start to finish, and change can be frightening.
- You need to multitask, keeping your complete business plan in mind. For example, you might be searching for information on your customers and discover a nugget about your Industry; you need to be able to manage the information effectively.
- Time and life are typically already full to the brim when we start researching.
- Many people give up part way through the market research process.
- One possible outcome is that your business idea is unworkable, which can seem like failure.
Quite naturally, people tend to have a lot of questions when beginning to research their market.
- How much market research is enough?
- Who do I talk to?
- What questions do I ask?
- How do I know when I have proven my business case?
- How do I gather information about my competitors?
- How do I know if people are telling me the truth?
These questions can be daunting, particularly if you have never developed a business plan. Steps 11 through 30 will bring you the answers to these and many other questions.
As you research your market, your confidence in your idea will either increase or decrease. As you ask questions and listen to the answers, you will become very knowledgeable about your business. If your research confirms that your business idea is viable, you will eventually reach a stage where you are confident enough to start your business or implement your plan. If the opposite occurs and you decide not to proceed with your plan, the market research has done its job, which is to save your energy and investment for a different venture.
Market research dovetails into many different parts of your business plan. By the time you complete your market research process (Step 30), you will have written draft versions of at least three Elements of your business plan. You will also have revised and rewritten some of those Elements a few times as you learn more about your business idea.
Most importantly, you should be well on your way to becoming confident in your ability to make your business successful.