Market Research 101: Uncover the Secrets to Small Business Success
Having an in-depth understanding of your market is essential. For any small-business owner who is looking to knock their business plan out of the park, market research will make or break the deal.
Dive deep into the world of market research and discover how it can be the game-changer for your small business. Learn the essentials of gathering market data, understanding consumer behavior, and making informed decisions that will propel your business to new heights. Get ready to unlock the power of market research and set your small business on the path to success.
What is Market Research?
Market research is all about unpacking the reasons why consumers buy. But not just why consumers “buy” in general. Market research offers insight into why consumers will buy your product.
A market study brimming with market data research uncovers the reasons. It’s like sleuthing. It’s like investigating what will lead to your small business success.
Ready to get going, Sherlock?
What Factors into Market Research?
As you might imagine, behavior, cultural, societal, and even personal factors influence consumer behavior. Going about understanding these topics means you have to be ready to do a bit of digging.
Successful market analysis includes market data research, financial market research, and an understanding of current market trends. Starting a small business takes effort, but consider this energy expended on market research crucial to your success.
Research, when done poorly or inconclusively can drive business in the wrong direction. If you do this part of your homework now, you’ll have a clear understanding of just who you’re trying to reach.
When you know who you’re trying to reach, you can speak their language and start hitting your own business goals.
The Best Way to Conduct Market Research
Primary and secondary market research will determine your direction. Think of primary research as a study on customers directly and secondary research as information others gathered on customers.
Primary research may be reaching out to people over the telephone, picking the collective brain of a focus group, or conducting market research through an online poll with randomly selecting members of a target group.
Secondary research is letting others help you with some of the heavy lifting like government-based websites like the U.S. Census Bureau or organizations paving the way within the business industry you are hoping to break into.
Market Research Data: What Questions Should I Answer?
Keep these questions in mind as you’re conducting top-level, high-quality and niche market research for your small business:
Who are my customers?
What do they buy now?
Why do they buy what they buy?
What will make them buy from me?
Start Writing The Business Plan
To understand niche markets, one could conduct market research forever.
As you move forward with your business plan, ask yourself when enough information is enough. Start dedicating time to conducting market research yourself and begin with less-expensive research options.
Small business development centers in your own town can help if you’re looking for in-person assistance. Online, the Small Business Administration (SBA) connects you to useful and free information.
If time is of the essence and you can’t find time to conduct thorough, in-depth, and extensive market research yourself, consider hiring a consultant or a researcher who specializes in collecting market data.
This is your business. These are your dreams. You’re going for your own goals. Remind yourself of this as you work your way forward.
5 Useful Resources Small-Business Owners Should Know About for Market Research Success
The U.S. Small Business Administration suggests these 5 sources of free data that can help you get started with your own market research.
1. Business Data & Statistics from SBA.gov
This aggregation of resources, collected by the U.S. government, includes business and economic conditions and indicators useful to new small-business owners and seasoned professionals alike.
If you’re searching for niche marketing statistics to include in your business plan, this site includes stats on income, employment, trade, manufacturing, and a wide range of other topics.
2. The U.S. Census Bureau
That bubble “test” the U.S. Census Bureau sends you in the mail every ten years collects more information than just the official count of how many people live in the country.
As you’re conducting market research and financial market research for the business venture you’re undertaking, consider relying on the info the U.S. Census Bureau has already collected for you.
Market analysis through the U.S. Census Bureau includes social, economic, household and demographic data for the town where you do business now or where you’re hoping to open up shop in the future.
The Census Bureau for Economic Statistics is another wealth of information for market report and market data research.
3. USA.gov
If there were a “Mall of America” for stats and data related to advanced market research, USA.gov would be it. This site alone is a treasure trove of info.
Depending on what market analysis you need or what focus group you’re zooming in on for your own small-biz venture, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to Data.gov, this site has it all.
Health stats, agricultural stats, energy information, and science and engineering may not seem pertinent if you’re opening up a brick and mortar store where you’ll be selling hand-crafted and seasonal floral wreaths or launching a small business venture online selling discounted tires, but as you gain traction with your business plan, becoming thorough means understanding as much as you can.
4. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Advocacy
Whether your small-business product or service is political in nature or not, dollars spent becomes an extension of the democratic individual’s voice. People shop with their dollars.
Visit the SBA Office of Advocacy and get briefed on the stats related to your industry and see what views and concerns other small businesses around the nation are voicing before Congress, the White House, the federal agencies, the federal courts and state policy makers.
5. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
For one site that can make market research as simple as can be, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) is it. The BEA provides tools, resources, information, news, and fact sheets related to retail sales, durable goods, manufacturing, construction, and more. No matter what sector of industry you’re entering into with your new business, the BEA can provide you with big-pictures stats to help you break into niche markets with precise market analysis.