Next look at the type of buyer your customers are. Are they innovators, early, adopters, early majority, late majority, or laggards? What groups are they influenced by and who do they influence? Also determine the level of involvement your customers will have with the product. Is it a high risk product based on their income level? Is the purchase time too great?

Competitors – Start researching your competitors’ products. See what they offer and look at their price

The Pitfalls of Over Qualification and Entry Level IT Roles
If you’ve looked into getting certified with the hope of landing your first IT job you will no doubt have come across some very tempting intensive fast track courses offering high level qualifications in a short space of time.Some even promise well paid senior grade jobs on completion of the course – it all just seems too good to be true, and actually it is. Who in their right mind would let someone with no experience (but at least two years worth of qualifications crammed into a couple of months) anywhere near their servers or network?As anyone who has worked in the industry will know, certifications are good to have but they do not substitute experience. This vital fact is what the training companies fail to mention when marketing their fast track courses. To get into high level IT roles you have to first get into low level one and work your way up.There are no shortcuts in this industry just like there aren’t in any other industr

Running a small business or launching a start-up company is very time consuming. Most of the time it feels as if there aren’t enough hours in the day to get the job done. Because of this, many small businesses skip some of the most important details in securing their success. Market research is one of these crucial steps that many businesses omit. How can you go ahead with a plan to sell a product when you don’t know if it’s going to sell? How can you set a price when you don’t even know your customer’s price sensitivity or your competitors’ prices? Market research, although time consuming and frequently omitted by small companies, is largely necessary to ensure a business’s success. This article will define market research and provide a step-by-step approach to tackling the subject as a small business.

Market Research – An Introduction

Market research is the process of collecting data on consumers, competitors, marketing and sales channels, and the forces affecting your industry. Consumer research usually contains data on basic customer characteristics and their buying behavior. Competitor research includes gathering data on product lines and pricing, competitors’ current advertisements, and some perceptual mapping. Channel research simply means that you must view the overall picture. How do you fit into the industry value chain? Who are the best suppliers, distributors, and retailers? How will your product reach the end consumer? Finally, gathering industry research involves analyzing Porter’s Five Forces along with market history and probable forecasts. Legalities and any political issues that may concern your business fit in here as well.

Step 1: Set Goals for Yourself

As with any project, your first step towards completing quality market research is to set some goals. What do you want to accomplish while doing the market research? These goals should focus on the process itself. Setting dates in a timeline is always a good idea if you’ve outlined multiple steps for your market research campaign. Here are some ideas for goals:

· Segment your market by age, income, and location

· Test interest in new products and services through product comparisons

· Improve customer relations

· Develop new strategies to hedge competition

· Optimize product prices

Step 2: Turn Goals into Results

Now that you’ve outlined all the goals for your campaign, transform your ambitions into the results you want. Where as the goals focused on your accomplishments during the market research, the results focus on what you want to get out of the market research. Think of the ways you envision your business improving after the research is done. Some examples:

· You can target the best customer segment possible

· You set the best price to ensure high product movement

· You close sales more quickly by knowing customer psychographics

· Your business has contingency plans

· You are more responsive and you move faster than your competition

Step 3: Start Your Research

All the preparation is done. You have your goals and your desired end results. The task of doing all the market research may seem daunting, but start small and start easy. Start with the easiest category “customers” and ask every possible question. Who are they? How old are they? How much do they make? Do they have families? Are they risk takers? Etc, etc. Move on to “competitors,” “channels,” and “environment” while still asking about all of the details. Answer as many questions as possible. Here are a few brief topics for each category to start your research:

Customers – Look at the demographics, psychographics, behavioristics, and geographics of your customers. Demographics are the basic ones like age, sex, income level, and marital status. Psychographics are the ways your customers perceive the benefits of your products and their motivations for buying. For example, two people with the same demographics may buy two SUVs for two different reasons: usefulness and style. Behavioristics are the ways your customers acts. How they spend their free time and what hobbies they have fall under here. Finally, geographics are simply the locations of your customers.

Next look at the type of buyer your customers are. Are they innovators, early, adopters, early majority, late majority, or laggards? What groups are they influenced by and who do they influence? Also determine the level of involvement your customers will have with the product. Is it a high risk product based on their income level? Is the purchase time too great?

Competitors – Start researching your competitors’ products. See what they offer and look at their prices

How To Get Your Dream Job
In their book, Get What You Deserve! How to Guerilla Market Yourself, Levinson and Godin outline six steps to get the job you really want.Position yourself. Write a positioning statement about yourself. Identify who you are and where you're going. Identify your customers. Identify the companies you want to work for and that honestly have what you are looking for. Don't go searching out non-profits as potential employers if you want unlimited earning potential. Similarly, don't focus on smaller companies if you want the prestige of working for a Fortune 500 company.Prepare a non-resume and a plan. Prepare a guerilla non-resume, a word-of-mouth campaign and a marketing strategy that reflects your positioning and gets you an interview. A non-resume is no resume. Instead, use an effective cover letter that highlights how you can benefit the company. In addition, use powerful reference letters that specifically support your positi

d the forces affecting your industry. Consumer research usually contains data on basic customer characteristics and their buying behavior. Competitor research includes gathering data on product lines and pricing, competitors’ current advertisements, and some perceptual mapping. Channel research simply means that you must view the overall picture. How do you fit into the industry value chain? Who are the best suppliers, distributors, and retailers? How will your product reach the end consumer? Finally, gathering industry research involves analyzing Porter’s Five Forces along with market history and probable forecasts. Legalities and any political issues that may concern your business fit in here as well.

Step 1: Set Goals for Yourself

As with any project, your first step towards completing quality market research is to set some goals. What do you want to accomplish while doing the market research? These goals should focus on the process itself. Setting dates in a timeline is always a good idea if you’ve outlined multiple steps for your market research campaign. Here are some ideas for goals:

· Segment your market by age, income, and location

· Test interest in new products and services through product comparisons

· Improve customer relations

· Develop new strategies to hedge competition

· Optimize product prices

Step 2: Turn Goals into Results

Now that you’ve outlined all the goals for your campaign, transform your ambitions into the results you want. Where as the goals focused on your accomplishments during the market research, the results focus on what you want to get out of the market research. Think of the ways you envision your business improving after the research is done. Some examples:

· You can target the best customer segment possible

· You set the best price to ensure high product movement

· You close sales more quickly by knowing customer psychographics

· Your business has contingency plans

· You are more responsive and you move faster than your competition

Step 3: Start Your Research

All the preparation is done. You have your goals and your desired end results. The task of doing all the market research may seem daunting, but start small and start easy. Start with the easiest category “customers” and ask every possible question. Who are they? How old are they? How much do they make? Do they have families? Are they risk takers? Etc, etc. Move on to “competitors,” “channels,” and “environment” while still asking about all of the details. Answer as many questions as possible. Here are a few brief topics for each category to start your research:

Customers – Look at the demographics, psychographics, behavioristics, and geographics of your customers. Demographics are the basic ones like age, sex, income level, and marital status. Psychographics are the ways your customers perceive the benefits of your products and their motivations for buying. For example, two people with the same demographics may buy two SUVs for two different reasons: usefulness and style. Behavioristics are the ways your customers acts. How they spend their free time and what hobbies they have fall under here. Finally, geographics are simply the locations of your customers.

Next look at the type of buyer your customers are. Are they innovators, early, adopters, early majority, late majority, or laggards? What groups are they influenced by and who do they influence? Also determine the level of involvement your customers will have with the product. Is it a high risk product based on their income level? Is the purchase time too great?

Competitors – Start researching your competitors’ products. See what they offer and look at their price

Lean Manufacturing and the Customer
Every lean manufacturer has a prime target. It is to be fully synchronized with the requirements of the customer. This will make the manufacturer to produce what exactly customer wants, when the customer required. As the result of this the customer will receive better quality goods with a lower cost, just when they need them. The manufacturer will also benefit since there is no stock to hold and no cost of failure due to falls predictions and so on. Having said this, what exactly the customer must do to facilitate his manufacturer and benefit?Still it is true to say the customer is the most important for any manufacturer. But in the supply chain customer is only a one part of it. Customer to get satisfaction with what his manufacturer does, the customer has to play an active role in the supply chain. It is not only placing an order with the supplier (in this case the manufacturer).Customer must be very clear of what his requirements are. In

Setting dates in a timeline is always a good idea if you’ve outlined multiple steps for your market research campaign. Here are some ideas for goals:

· Segment your market by age, income, and location

· Test interest in new products and services through product comparisons

· Improve customer relations

· Develop new strategies to hedge competition

· Optimize product prices

Step 2: Turn Goals into Results

Now that you’ve outlined all the goals for your campaign, transform your ambitions into the results you want. Where as the goals focused on your accomplishments during the market research, the results focus on what you want to get out of the market research. Think of the ways you envision your business improving after the research is done. Some examples:

· You can target the best customer segment possible

· You set the best price to ensure high product movement

· You close sales more quickly by knowing customer psychographics

· Your business has contingency plans

· You are more responsive and you move faster than your competition

Step 3: Start Your Research

All the preparation is done. You have your goals and your desired end results. The task of doing all the market research may seem daunting, but start small and start easy. Start with the easiest category “customers” and ask every possible question. Who are they? How old are they? How much do they make? Do they have families? Are they risk takers? Etc, etc. Move on to “competitors,” “channels,” and “environment” while still asking about all of the details. Answer as many questions as possible. Here are a few brief topics for each category to start your research:

Customers – Look at the demographics, psychographics, behavioristics, and geographics of your customers. Demographics are the basic ones like age, sex, income level, and marital status. Psychographics are the ways your customers perceive the benefits of your products and their motivations for buying. For example, two people with the same demographics may buy two SUVs for two different reasons: usefulness and style. Behavioristics are the ways your customers acts. How they spend their free time and what hobbies they have fall under here. Finally, geographics are simply the locations of your customers.

Next look at the type of buyer your customers are. Are they innovators, early, adopters, early majority, late majority, or laggards? What groups are they influenced by and who do they influence? Also determine the level of involvement your customers will have with the product. Is it a high risk product based on their income level? Is the purchase time too great?

Competitors – Start researching your competitors’ products. See what they offer and look at their price

Get Smart Before You Start A New Business - Part 03 - The Planning Stage
Now that you have conducted comprehensive research as indicated in (Part 02) of this mini series, you are more prepared to begin to assemble your thoughts and data into a business plan format. Before doing that, you need to consider a few things:WHAT A BUSINESS PLAN ISA written business plan is a road map from where you are now to where you want to be one, two, five and ten years from now with your business. To write a good plan you must have vision for your business now and well into the future. Why? You may think you can start your business without a formal written plan, and you can, but you will have far more unanticipated problems, probably make more costly mistakes and the probability of failure is far higher. What if I put you in a rowboat without oars, no map, no compass, and no sextant and pushed you away from shore. Then I told you to go to a specific dock (called success) in France, what do you think are the

sales more quickly by knowing customer psychographics

· Your business has contingency plans

· You are more responsive and you move faster than your competition

Step 3: Start Your Research

All the preparation is done. You have your goals and your desired end results. The task of doing all the market research may seem daunting, but start small and start easy. Start with the easiest category “customers” and ask every possible question. Who are they? How old are they? How much do they make? Do they have families? Are they risk takers? Etc, etc. Move on to “competitors,” “channels,” and “environment” while still asking about all of the details. Answer as many questions as possible. Here are a few brief topics for each category to start your research:

Customers – Look at the demographics, psychographics, behavioristics, and geographics of your customers. Demographics are the basic ones like age, sex, income level, and marital status. Psychographics are the ways your customers perceive the benefits of your products and their motivations for buying. For example, two people with the same demographics may buy two SUVs for two different reasons: usefulness and style. Behavioristics are the ways your customers acts. How they spend their free time and what hobbies they have fall under here. Finally, geographics are simply the locations of your customers.

Next look at the type of buyer your customers are. Are they innovators, early, adopters, early majority, late majority, or laggards? What groups are they influenced by and who do they influence? Also determine the level of involvement your customers will have with the product. Is it a high risk product based on their income level? Is the purchase time too great?

Competitors – Start researching your competitors’ products. See what they offer and look at their price

Increase Profits and Improve Productivity in Your Business by Using the Internet
Internet use is increasing rapidly and is revolutionizing the way business is done. New businesses and business models are emerging, customer behavior and expectations are changing, and more customers, suppliers and competitors are going online.This presents substantial challenges and opportunities for all businesses. To survive and prosper in this global and competitive environment, businesses must embrace the Internet and use it to transform their business.The Internet can be used in many areas of a business to increase revenue, reduce costs and improve productivity. The Internet is not just about sending and receiving email and setting up a website. There is so much more and the capabilities increase every day.Businesses should be using the Internet to:1. ConnectThe Internet enables businesses to connect people, businesses and systems, quickly, easily and cheaply. This makes it cheaper and easier to

come level, and marital status. Psychographics are the ways your customers perceive the benefits of your products and their motivations for buying. For example, two people with the same demographics may buy two SUVs for two different reasons: usefulness and style. Behavioristics are the ways your customers acts. How they spend their free time and what hobbies they have fall under here. Finally, geographics are simply the locations of your customers.

Next look at the type of buyer your customers are. Are they innovators, early, adopters, early majority, late majority, or laggards? What groups are they influenced by and who do they influence? Also determine the level of involvement your customers will have with the product. Is it a high risk product based on their income level? Is the purchase time too great?

Competitors – Start researching your competitors’ products. See what they offer and look at their prices. Do some reconnaissance work and call them up seeking information. One way to get good results is to say you are a local college student who is doing a profile on the industry this competitor is in. Ask for basic financials if you can. At least see if you can obtain their product costs and profit margins for your “project.”

Also look at the current advertising and promotions your competitors are doing. See how they are affecting customers. Get opinions on each business and develop strategies to hedge the competition. Create a perceptual map to determine how customers see the major competitors in the industry. Find a point where you can position yourself in the best possible way.

Channels – Start researching manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and retailers. Are there ways you can cooperate with any of them? Do you need to go through a distributor or can you even sell factory direct items? Discover the fastest and most cost effective ways you can do business. Do not be afraid to question your current business model.

Environment – Begin by analyzing Porter’s Five Forces. Look at the strengths and weaknesses your buyers and suppliers have. Determine if it is easy or hard to enter your market and if you need to be wary of potential entrants undermining your business. Are there substitutes that your customers may switch to? Are there costs associated with switching products for the customer? Be sure to research any political and legal problems that may come up with your product. Keep an eye out for new laws that may affect your industry and your products.

Places to Find Info This is just a start; there are many more subjects you can research depending on how many resources you have and whether you want to hire a market research company to ease your burden. Just remember to plan your campaign by setting goals for yourself, turning them into desired results, and then beginning to do your market research. Asking questions is the key to market research. Be as thorough as possible and utilize as many resources as possible. Here’s a quick list of some places to get started:

- the Internet

- S&P Industry Surveys

- MarketResearch.com

- local Chamber of Commerce

- government publications

- Yellow Pages

- old invoices

- newspapers

- business journals

- online published marketing research reports

- surveys of current clients

- competitors’ ads

- competitors themselves (purchase their customer lists and ask for financials)

- customer list companies

- Simmons Market Research Bureau (http://www.smrb.com)