Research before Starting an Online Business
Oct 07 2024
Business
a. Research on Business Type and Field
Like the case with any other business, starting an online business also starts with doing research.
¾ During the primary research, think about business ideas and specify your field of activity in the online business.
Assume you intend to launch a business of selling online tickets. First, determine what type of ticket you intend to sell: ticket to ceremonies and events or plane and train ticket. Selling each type opens the doors to a whole new different world which you get to know by researching.
¾ You may intend to either add online sales to your conventional business or run a full online business. In any case, by conducting primary research, you can reach certainty about the business you intend to start.
¾ In the stage of doing research, check what problem or need of the market your business resolves.
The necessity of every new idea for online business is that it resolves an unaddressed need of the market or fills a need addressed by other businesses by applying better methods and lower cost.
b. Research on the Market and Competitors
In this stage, research must be conducted to gain knowledge of the market and competitors. Such research includes answering the following questions:
Who is your business target market?
What is the size of your target market?
What is the general status of the market?
What are the characteristics of your target market?
Don’t think about starting a business without doing research and preparing the research result table.
Google is one of the important tools for doing research. By entering a search term in the Google search box, you will view some suggestions for all types of searching that term by Google. Another benefit of Google is that it shows the results locally. For example, if you search the term "online ticket" while you are in Canada, Google suggests you the term "online ticket sales Canada". By clicking on this term, you see a list of competitors.
Researching your competitors is an important part of the research you must do. Know the competitors who have entered the market before you do and see how you can handle them. How many competitors are there in the market?
What is the structure of your competitor’s business?
What procedures do your competitors adopt?
What marketing methods, advertising and incentive plans do your competitors use? What are the organizations and companies which work with your competitors
Knowing the competitors will give you the best ideas for recognizing the business and products' methods and how to sell them
Competitors show you the market needs and how to address them.
Take the benefit of counseling with experts and elites at any business level you are.
You may not be able to analyze your competitors in full capacity. Find an expert and ask him/her to analyze the market for you. A while ago, I was talking to someone at a party when I accidentally noticed that person is an expert in the business I intended to start and could provide me with invaluable information. Interestingly enough, the information that person gave me was quite valuable for me despite the broad research we had already conducted.
Enter the research results in a practical table so you can analyze these results
Compare the research results with your ideas and improve these ideas. Your ideas might be so novel that your competitors haven’t thought of them yet
c. Deciding to Start a Business
In this stage, you need to decide whether to start your online business or not.
The initial answer is that if the market is large enough and numerous companies are working there, why shouldn’t you enter such a market? Some markets are so extensive that there is still capacity no matter how many more suppliers come in. For example, the market for holding event is extensive, and many events are held every year. Therefore, you can design a comprehensive and simple-to use website for selling tickets of various types of events . After that, try and make partners with event holders. In the example of selling event tickets online, you need to offer something that event holders leave your competitors or work with you, too
The market is sometimes not in a way that you can enter it. For example, there are giants operating in there and you are not capable of competing with them.
Sometimes, you need to think about a special market which is not the market for business giants in your niche where you can provide services without any serious competition. In the example of event tickets, Ticketmaster is a powerful website which holds a great share in the market, but other websites also enter the market and have their own business. The market for event ticket is a special market, and you need to find ways to absorb buyers according to the research you perform. Ticketmaster entered the market when no other website had started working in this regard yet. First, they designed a suitable website, and then, they went after event venues. This website's representatives proposed to event holders, saying something like, "We modernize your system free of charge, and you can sell your tickets through our website"
Not having any competitors and selecting a proper method to enter the market, you see that your business will grow easily.
If you enter the market with a new idea, know the market structures and improve the methods according to these structures; otherwise, you will bear heavy expenses.
