County Agent News

Dan Folske

February 28, 2011

NDSU Offers Simple Small-business Market Research Tips

Current and future small-business owners are aware of the need to do regular market research on who their customers are and what they want. 

“Yet getting that done often proves to be difficult or even impossible,” says Glenn Muske, rural and agribusiness enterprise development specialist. “How to do market research often sounds difficult and seems to be a costly, time-intensive endeavor. However, that need not be reality.” 

Gathering information from customers can be done easily and with very little cost. Most importantly, it need not take a lot of time. 

Glenn Muske, rural and agribusiness enterprise development specialist for the North Dakota State University Extension Service, offers several way to do simple market research. He notes that small-business owners are well-positioned for this work. 

“Small-business owners quite often know who the majority of their customers are,” he says. “And in small towns, the knowledge of the customer expands as business owners and customers often meet in other business and social events. This information forms a rich knowledge of the needs and wants of the customer.” 

A second simple step is to ask existing customers for suggestions. You, as the business owner, can do this quickly and easily, but “What else can we do to help?” also should be a regular question each employee asks. 

While asking the question is simple, a key to making this system work is gathering this information somewhere. Don’t rely on memory, especially for customers’ comments and suggestions made more than a week ago. 

You may want to take your request for suggestions one step further by providing cards for customers to fill out. You can have customers provide comments anonymously, or you can have them fill in their name and address, and you can hold drawings with prizes for their participation. 

As you use customers’ ideas, be sure to let the customers know what you have done with theirr ideas. If they give you permission, you may want to post a thank you note in the store. The comments also may be the basis for a news release. This gets your business name and your customer’s name in the paper. 

Doing market research does not necessarily require asking questions, however. You have a wealth of information available from sales reports and invoices. You also can talk with sales representatives, your trade associations, the local economic development agency and the local chamber of commerce. 

Today, a great deal of information is available online and in print as well. Governmental agencies continually capture information, and that information is getting easier and easier to find and use. 

“The key issue with market research is to not only find it but to use it in your decision-making process,” [insert last name] says. “This means setting aside time to analyze the information and then to take action on what you find.” 

Market research is the difference between a good business and a great business. Doing it gives you an advantage over your competitors who are not taking advantage of these simple tools, Muske says. 

For more information, contact the Burke County Extension office at 377-2927, email: dan.folske@ndsu.edu  or visit www.eXtension.org/entrepreneurship. Federal and state resources such as the Small Business Administration and Small Business Development Centers also are prepared to help.