Start Smart for Your Business

“A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others”  author unknown

Hello and welcome to Small Business BC’s blog on Market Research. My name is Mark Eversfield, and I’m the Market Research Analyst here at SBBC. I’ll be posting information on tips, tools, and insights on using market research to help you exceed your business expectations.

The quote above highlights the importance of a little education when starting your business. Even though you may think you know everything you’ll need to start your business, some education will go a long way to save you money and stress. In talking to Vancity, a local credit union, they reported that the chances of getting a business loan more than double when the applicant uses a facility like Small Business BC to research their market, 32% vs 74%.

Getting started on your market research can feel overwhelming if you’ve never done it before. The key to any discovery process, such as researching your market, is asking the right questions. If you don’t know the right questions to ask, you won’t get the right answers.

By working at Small Business BC, I receive hundreds of queries about market research. The best recommendation I can make to entrepreneurs is to take a market research seminar. These seminars help you get past the anxiety that everyone has when starting their research and provide tips and information on conducting your research. It’s important to get comfortable with market research terms, definitions, and sources that will answer your toughest questions. Seminars help you get there. Another benefit of taking seminars is that you are with a group of people who have the same types of feelings about their market research, outlooks, and questions.

Small Business BC offers a market research seminar called Start Smart 3. This seminar will cover a wide variety of topics including definitions of primary and secondary data, survey resources, hints on determining your target market, and an overview of data resources that will help you get the answers you’ll need. The seminar is 3 hours long and a bargain at  $39.

 Until next time, stay keen!!

Mark.