Without aggressive research and market survey efforts before starting your business, you may be wading through unclear waters. Jeff Bezos’ confidence in succeeding came from a little research on internet business possibilities at D.E Shaw & Co. The research showed that web usage was growing at a staggering rate of 2,300 percent a year, as result of the growing availability of Internet browsers then.

According to Jeff, something that is growing 2,300 percent a year ‘is invisible today and ubiquitous tomorrow.’ He was further surprised that of all products that could be sold on the Web (including computer softwares, office supplies, clothing and apparel, music, among other 20 possibilities), books moved from being the bottom of the list to the very top, with music following in second place. Books stayed because of their wide availability, logistics and a host of other factors. Without such research, Amazon.com would not have found its mission, and would probably have been strangulated by stiff competitions in the long-run. It was able to innovate because it knew all along where it was going to. Here are a few things to note about the best ways to carry your market research as a startup.

Research Your Industry and Obtain Key Market data

• Choose your specific industry, mining, sales, retailing, ecommerce
• Carry out extensive market research yourself or through a professional. Sometimes, the use of trained professional researchers is recommended since they are often skilled and know all the techniques of research that would adequately cover all the fields of your research. They can also explain the collated data to you, in ways that are both dispassionate and objective.
• Deplore the Internet Use the Internet to search for already collated data in your industry within your locality. You may consider using the following tricks. Enter words on search engines, such as, “X market size pdf”; “X market outlook pdf”; or “X market trends pdf”. Using ‘pdf’ allows you to gain useful industry knowledge, insights and reports. This may be useful but most times may not remotely represent your needs.

Research And Study Your Market Segments, Customers or Clients Purchasing Patterns or Psychology.

• At this stage, you are a bit closer to what you are looking for. Industries target this method because most times, it accurately captures their interests.
• This would also help you gain clearer insights about the purchasing pattern of your customers.
• There are so many research firms that may help you do this more precisely. Where you can’t afford any, you can resort to already published reports online.
• Research companies such NPD Group or Nielsen sometimes publishes periodic survey data online.
• To research online, simply type in keywords like “survey”, year “2018”, “pdf”, customer info “small business owners”.

Research About  Your Competitors

• There persons or companies that are already in business like you. Most of them have assumed comfortable market shares.
• Turning blind eyes to your competitors could be very deadly because they would often give you a clearer view about the nature of the market you are going into, the concentration of competitors in your locality and the type of services or products they produce.
• Here, you need to find more about your competitors’ market share, including their marketing and pricing strategies.
• The best and the easiest ways to do so would be research online.
• You can Google your competitors online. Try using keywords such as: market shares, market players, market leaders, industry leaders, market share, revenue statistics, loss statistics, why company x succeeds more company x vs company x.
• You may obtain data from the Stock Exchange or any trading point, especially if the company is a public company because it has much of its data in the public domain.
• To find more information about the revenue of companies on Google, you can use Yahoo Finance or other platforms especially if the company is a public company. Use the Company’s symbol or logo to conduct the search.
• Where the company is not a public company but a big one, you can Go to Google and search for “Company X revenues”, “Company X annual revenue”. Or search for “X market companies’ revenue streams”.
• For medium or small sized business, you may use Hoovers. However, you can use this name if you know the real name of the companies. You can find the registered names at the foot of their companies’ websites, if they have.  Companies usually go by such names as XYZ LLC , or XYY LTD. When this is not possible, you can try and find out who owns the website. You can proceed with Hoovers after you have obtained the name.

Research about Competitor Market Share

• You can calculate market shares if you find top 100 companies on this market and its revenues. Most times, information about market shares is not always available or satisfactory.

Related: 5 Best Ways Any Startup Can Use To Attract Investors

Competitor Pricing Research

• Information about pricing can always be found on the companies’ website.
• You can try out on a few consumer websites where they are not available. Consumer websites such as https://www.toptenreviews.com/ include pricing for each product they compare. For software company pricing use https://www.capterra.com.
• You may also rely on groups or the social media to solicit for different pricing from consumers in your industry.

Competitor Marketing Strategy Research

• You can find information on case studies and articles in the media as sometimes founders share their marketing secrets.
• You can also collate data by attending events or shareholders’ meeting of competitor companies and asking a few insiders.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh a Lagos-based Lawyer with special focus on Business Law, Intellectual Property Rights, Entertainment and Technology Law. He is also an award-winning writer. Working for notable organisations so far has exposed him to some of industry best practices in business, finance strategies, law, dispute resolution and data analytics both in Nigeria and across the world.