Start Your Business Right with Low-Cost Research
Put the coffee on and learn the fast track way to research your market for long-term business success
Just imagine that you're planning to open a coffee shop in Seattle. If there's one thing the city has, besides rain, it's a lot of places serving up caffeine. Which means the competition could kill you, unless you find a great location and the best way to serve up your brew. Understanding everything you can about coffee consumption will help make your business a success. For example, you'll need to know who drinks coffee, favorite haunts and beverages, types of competition, available locations, do they drive or walk, etc.
When looking for information about your industry, starting with Google might seem like a good idea, but in our example, "coffee shops" turned up over two million hits. Trying "coffee shop customers" narrowed it down to a little over two thousand -- still a lot of data to wade through. A better way to start searching is through related trade publications and organizations. They're already focused on your industry, and usually offer low and no cost information you can download. Here's how to get started:
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