Did you know that 42% of businesses fail because there is no market need?

You may have a great idea (so you think) for a business, but you need to make sure you’ll have customers!

To learn if you’ll have customers, you need to understand where your business idea fits in the market.

Market research will get you the answers you need. You can discover information on potential customers and industry-related statistics. What you’re looking at essentially is consumer behavior and market trends.

You need to do two different sets of research: primary and secondary.

Your primary research is the study of your target market. You want to talk to them directly by holding focus groups or user interviews. In this research, you need to define who your customers are and segment your market. Market segmentation can be age, location, spending power or even stage of life (for example, new parents, retirees). Identifying and analyzing your potential customer base will help you develop your overall business strategy.

The secondary research is assembling information from external sources. We highly recommend taking advantage of the Business Division at your public library. The librarians are trained to help you research data from public documents and commercial research agencies, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And it’s free, which is a great help when you’re just starting out.

Taking the time to research your market will save you money and headaches.