According to a recent FORBES survey the main reasons why startups struggle can be summarized as lack of market knowledge about customer needs, competitors and recent changes in the industry.
Typical moments when a business may have a need for research
- Business idea “Is there a market for it?”
- Product “Do customers want it?” Services “Is it needed?”
- Competitors “What do they do and don’t do?” Where are my customers?
- Are there enough customers in my area to feed into my business? What has changed in my industry?
- Answers to these questions transform directly into revenue and profit.
This is true for
- Existing businesses entering a new market
- Existing businesses developing a new product/service
- Startup businesses focused on entering the market
- Startup businesses creating sales volume
- Pre-startup businesses validating an idea
- Pre-startup businesses creating a full picture of their market conditions
Use this as a checklist and highlight what you need. All of our advisors have an arsenal of resources for you. Business Databases are powerful if you know where to look and what to look for. There are two typical challenges: one, if the business is geographically limited, are there enough customers to draw from and second, if you can service nationally or internationally what market segment should you focus on. Of course your answer may also depend on your advertising budget and staff capacity.
Here is a short reference guide of resources:
- Reference Solutions – competitors, business customers, consumer customers by life style and/or area
- Mintel – Trends, Niches, Industry news
- Mergent Intellect – details on competitors, search for new markets/customers by profile
- IBIS world – Detailed industry reports including impact of the pandemic of 2020 on your industry
You have access to the College of DuPage Library resources on campus through the SBDC. Our advisors are always excited to have this conversation with you and help you make a plan of your needs and guide you toward the matching business database.
Most data is accumulated from public IRS data and US census data. The advantage to use a business database is the user interface and the data already accumulated for business purposes. You are always welcome to use US Census data directly.