It is not necessary to hire a market research company or invest any money to get started with your market analysis. Begin by asking a series of questions that will need to be addressed as you begin to execute your business plan. These questions are designed to solicit your understanding of the marketplace that your business is operating.

What is MARKET RESEARCH? This is a process by which you can increase your understanding of the marketplace using data and help analyze the market with factual information. This data will enable you to create a useful guide to help navigate your business successfully.

• Governmental and Census data
• Trade and Industry publications
• General Business and Marketing research firms
• Your Independent market surveys

• Department of Commerce, US industrial Outlook - an annual publication that provides the general economic outlook for the coming year while reporting on current year production.
• US Census - Economic Censuses, provide sales figures and trends via geographic zip code for various industries such as retail trade, service transportation and manufacturing.
• CENDATA, online data base that provides information on business broken up by geographical county. It is segregated by Standard Industrial Classification code (SIC). CENDATA evaluates performance trends for your industry in the target location.

• The Small Business Sourcebook is a resource to locate many of the trade publications for any given industry.
• Encyclopedia of Business Information is for larger companies not included in the Small Business Sourcebook. It lists trade associations and other sources of statistical information
• National Trade and Professional Associations of the United States is a source where over 30,000 trade associations are registered.

• Consumer’s Index will help to identify suppliers, distributors, potential customers and competition.
• The Yellow Pages is an invaluable resource for local competitor information as well as suppliers.

DO NOT hesitate to conduct your own research and surveys. The publications already listed are great for giving you data but may not fully answer the questions properly. Get out into the community and get a feel for the market.

Once you have collected data from as many sources as you deem helpful, it will be necessary to format this information in a simple, easy to read fashion. The objective is to reduce the information into the most relevant pieces of data. By creating a checklist, utilizing the following questions, you will gain a truer understanding of the market; it’s potential and the realistic revenue opportunity that exists.

This site provides good overall marketing information. It is supported by a Liraz publishing company and provides resources for all aspects of small business management.

An excellent resource for market analysis. The was established by the Edward Lowe Foundation which is an organization whose mission is to "champion the entrepreneurial spirit".

An overall small business managers resource. Get answers to all of your small business questions from one of the most respected financial resources in the world.