Step 3

Research & Market Testing

Researching and Market Testing your Business Idea is one of the most important things you can do before setting up a business. You can test out your idea informally and formally. Some of the most common and effective low-cost processes include:

  • talking to friends and family
  • telephone research
  • online/internet research
  • field trips to look at / visit competitors sites
  • surveys

and more.

Research Task

  • Think about your Business Idea – where can you find out more about business of that type?
  • Think about your Potential Competition – consider who else does what you intend to do – who are they, where they are and what they do? What information do you think you can find out about them and where / how can you find that out?
  • Think about your Potential Competition – consider what else solves your customers problem, meets their needs at present? What information do you think you can find out about that / how can you find that out?

In your note pad start a “To Do” list – add “Research” to it. Start another list on another page for “Information I want / need to gather”. You can develop these lists as you work thorough the course.

There is some very good material on Researching Your Market on-line, we saved a particularly good article from the HSBC website – Research Your Market.

Look for others on-line too.

Reality Check 1

Before you go on to Step 4 it is time to do a quick “reality check”. Reality Check 1 is to check out your financial needs and expectations.

Go to Reality Check 1

Go to Step 2   Go to Step 4

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