Five of the best, inexpensive research methods you should consider using when scrutinizing your new business idea.

1. Check out your competition – Before entering the market make sure you have researched all your competitors thoroughly. Sign up for any newsletters and download any whitepapers they have on offer.
2. Go undercover – Why not go and visit your competitor’s store? Keep a pad with you before hand and write down any interesting questions you can think of asking when you get there. But be careful, try and make sure it doesn’t sound too rehearsed!
3. Ask people who aren’t your friends – Surprisingly, when most people start a new business they only ask for the opinions of their friends and family. Try writing a questionnaire and asking your potential target market for answers. You may find that they are more objective, and less concerned with sugar coating their responses to you!
4. Trade Associations – For the market place you intend on entering, have a look and see if there are any governing bodies and trade associations related to the industry. Spend some time reading their websites and looking at any relevant news and other businesses associations they work with.
5. Suppliers – Quite often potential suppliers will be willing to give you access to useful research and market trends if you intend on using them in the future.

Its never easy starting your own business. Here’s 10 important hints and tips for you to consider before you decide to take the plunge!

1. Assess and Analyse

Starting up and ultimately running a business is very time consuming, so you need to assess whether what your doing is something you love or not. Analyse your personality; you need to ask yourself if you’re the right person to start up a business, can you work long hours? Can you take criticism? Will you be able to cope with financial insecurities? These are just some of the things you need to consider. Write down a list of all the reasons why you’re starting up your own business, as they are essential in contributing to your success.

2. Research and know your market better than your competitors

Before you begin, it is vital to examine your market, look at the demand for your product/services. Research into likely competitors, become an expert in your industry. Identify key differences in what you have to offer that others don’t, as it can be used as a unique selling point once your up and running.

3. Take advice and get professional help

As with anything you do it is always important to seek professional advice and help. This will allow you to look at your business objectively and ensures that you are doing things correctly, which is difficult when you are so closely involved.

4. Don’t do it alone and always remain professional

Be professional from the off. Everything about you needs to let people know that you’re a professional running a serious business. This means getting business cards, business numbers e.g 0844 Numbers, a business email address and always treating people in a professional and courteous manner. It is vital to have a support network, when starting up your business. Experienced guidance is the best support system of all.

5. Create a detailed and exceptional business plan

One of the main reasons for doing a business plan first is that it can help you avoid wasting time, effort and money into a business that isn’t going to succeed. The SBA website has lots of good information on how to put together an exceptional business plan.

6. Be flexible and take everything one-step at a time

Always be flexible and be ready to move quickly when an opportunity arises. Never get ahead of yourself by trying to do too much when working through the process of setting up your business. Try to structure tasks and box things off methodically.

7. Start up when your still employed/ Toe-dip

It may be a long time before your business actually makes any money. Being employed when you actually start your business means money in your pocket while your going through your business start-up. So you still have the financial security until your business is up and running. Toe dipping means you basically test your idea without risking everything.

8. Always be honest about your weaknesses

Identify what you do well and what you do badly, dividing it into areas such as financial, marketing, operational and general management. Be honest with yourself and always be realistic.

9. Justify every assumption in your business plan

You should make sure your business plan has long-term objectives, estimates and forecasts. It will help you keep your business on a planned course so you can spot when things are not going to plan.

10. Don’t give up if things aren’t moving as fast as you anticipated

If you want your own business you have to be willing to work hard, work smart and keep on going until you get it. There is no other way.

One of the biggest mistakes any new business can make is not measuring accurately every aspect of their marketing campaigns.

Fortunately nowadays for most small businesses owners and marketers, the Internet has allowed us to measure the effectiveness of our online marketing without the need for too much techie knowledge.

Through the likes of Google Analytics we can analyse how much traffic our website is receiving, where visitors are clicking and how many pages they are looking at.

By then further analysing our visitors behaviour, we can optimise our website and as a result increase our sales.

But… what happens if instead of clicking on the company website your potential customer rings your business, how do you identify where they found your contact details?

Call Whisper service

By using multiple 08 prefix numbers you can monitor and analyse the effectiveness of every one of your advertisements. For example, when a potential customer rings your 0800, 0844, 0871 or 0870 number, you will hear an announcement of it source e.g. ‘this call is from your Thomson local advertisement.’

By monitoring all your inbound contact points you can analyse accurately the value of a particular advertising medium, ensuring that any unproductive campaigns are ended sooner rather than later.