- Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
Market Research for the Busy Businessperson
Any person with internet access has quickly learned that simply typing a company or personal name into any search engine will usually yield what seems like an infinite number of hits. The problem of course is that most of them are not useful, and they probably don’t provide the business intelligence that you could really use to build your business.
And unlike Buzz Lightyear, you don’t have an infinite amount of time to look at them all.
Research Methods
“Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” The King of Hearts (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll) never did quite find anything useful…and he did go on for a long, long time. With the internet he would never come to the end. Neither will you…so you need to be organized and focused.
In this blog I am going to write about techniques that professional researchers (and librarians) know and have been using since information has existed—OK, that’s forever. Of course, the creation of the World Wide Web (Thank you, Tim Berners Lee!) has made the search so much easier. But it is not effortless. And, it absolutely requires organization. (That’s where librarians can come in.)
If you had no research skills before Google, you probably don’t now—you must develop it like any other skill!
Just entering names of companies or persons is likely to provide a flood of information, but little of it will help you grow your business. And it may not be reliable.
Business intelligence hunts really do become easier and more efficient as you gain some skills…if you pay attention and plan your strategy. It does take some time, but the rewards are great. The great news is that because of the World Wide Web most information is now free and accessible if you know how to look for it.
Business intelligence provides information that is vital to your enterprise. Many of my suggestions may be techniques you may already know: you have just neglected to be organized about using them and doing a thorough search. ( I told you that organization would keep coming up.) I will cover sources that you won’t find in a simple Google search.
We all know the information elements that we need to build and grow a business:
- Business owners, managers and public movers and shakers—the names we need for meaningful contact
- Directory listings that provide useful information on size, status, planned projects, credit information
- Government agencies, contracts, budgets, plans and organization
- Statistics on buyers, sales and trends
- Competitor information such as mergers, expansion, facility plans and markets.
The list could go on and on, but the point is that there is a lot of intelligence out there that would be invaluable to your business planning if you just knew that it existed.
In future posts I will discuss not only great information sources, but organization and research skills as well. The intelligence hunt can not only be rewarding, but the challenge can be fun!
Contact me: cwilliams@intellhunt.com
The personal information of the customers is http://opacc.cv/opacc/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/.._documentos_contabilistas_Modelo%2012.pdf viagra on line kept confidential. Research on find these guys order levitra online such equipment will show up a lot of names like Fuel Genie, Tornado Fuel Saver and Platinum Gas Saver. So before adopting the intake procedure you should consult opacc.cv levitra side effects your therapist right away. This compound does the restraint procedure cialis low cost of phosphodiesterase type5 enzyme, which is the main offender in the impotence crime.