Knowledge is Power!

When I start working with clients one of the early pieces of work I do is to ask them is to provide me with what they know about their market, the size, growth, trends and what they understand about their competitors.

Guess what in many cases if they do have anything written down its out of date, often it’s in their head or is just gut feelings. So I always build a small amount of research time into the project proposal.

But the worst thing is that up until now these clients business management or business planning (if they do any) is based on this lack of knowledge.

When I talk to businesses in the first place the comments I get are:

We don’t need all that, we just want more sales
Well we don’t have time for research.
We don’t need/can’t afford a marketing manager.
We don’t have anyone with that expertise in house
We can’t afford to pay someone like you to carry out research

Let’s take the first comment

Trying to plan or run a business without research is crazy. To use an example that’s like driving a car blindfold down the fast lane of the motorway without any idea of your destination, that would be a pretty stupid thing to do.
For instance if the long term trends in your market means that its going to change radically you need to know about it.

Secondly time invested now can pay dividends and prevent expensive mistake or more importantly the knowledge gained can give you the edge over your competition.

Lastly costs money or time spent should be seen as an investment not a cost.

If you are a start up business and really have no money you can do it yourself for free.

You don’t have to spend a large amount of money. I don’t buy market research reports for instance. In the UK we have the library’s service and most counties have a least one which is designated as the County Business Library.

I am a great fan of these facilities. For instance they hold copies of Keynote Market Research Reports. These are major pieces of market research that have been funded by big businesses/organisations and you can view them for free either in hard copy, (or on the computer in my County library).
I spend a lot of time there making notes and you can take some limited photocopies.
I could of course examine Keynote reports via the Keynote Website but you can only see the executive summary to get the rest costs sometimes thousands of pounds, but why would I want to do that?

Of course you can also use the internet and do some free research.

So no more excuses, let your competitors stay in blissful ignorance and steel a march on them.

Do it today!

For more information about how simple techniques could help your business e-mail me today!

Alan Briggs

Dynamic Business Strategies Ltd
Tel: 07917 446068
E-Mail: info@dynamicbusinessstrategies.co.uk
Website: www.dynamicbusinessstrategies.co.uk