Market Research on a Budget

This post on the $mart Marketing on and budget blog highlights that market research is crucial in knowing whether or not a business will take off, and so they've detailed several market research efforts that will cost you nothing in terms of dollars. Here's a recap of the efforts businesses should undertake when planning a business.

1. Primary Research - This is research which should be gathered from potential customers and current customers. Email surveys, networking, and talking to professors in business schools are all great, cheap ways of conducting research.

2. Secondary Research - There are many sites that offer statistics that might help out your business. Here are three links the post mentions:

www.fedstats.gov
http://www.smartmarketing4.me/home/seven-more-freesources-for-marketing-research.html
http://www.smartmarketing4.me/home/six-sources-for-no-cost-marketing-research.html

3. SWOT Analysis - Once all analysis is gathered, a simple SWOT analysis should be able to help you make sense of all data collected.