What market research did you do before starting a business?

[phanio]

A formal business plan and adjoining marketing plan may not be necessary for all businesses - but, it does not hurt to have one. You might even uncover new opprotunities for your business.

Prior to starting my business, I ran a business incubator in Texas. One of the many problems we had in growing other businesses was finding them capital. Even in bull economies - accessing capital for new or growing business is a very hard and time consuming task. Thus, through my reaearch in helping my clients - I learn a tremendous amount about my market, my potential customers and the differnet products and services that was out there.

Before starting my business - I did do an informal buisness and marketing plan - cutting out some of the fluff that goes into traditioan plans and focused on the core issues.

[krmwebdesign]

I'm starting an online business network to help small businesses and I was thinking of adding marketing research tools as part of it. I'm just wondering does anyone think this could be a good idea? Is it something you could use? It may be a way of putting the idea in front of businesses helping them to succeed. The site is free to use so businesses wouldn't be paying for any of this.

I know online surveys is a big part of market research but I will be thinking of other ideas. Does anyone know what other market research tools that are used?

I know of other entrepreneurs that built a market research social network and they're sitting in piles of cash. I may try this also.

The ironic thing is I didn't do any market research lol. I've redeveloped the site a couple of times but think I have a good it now.