Have you ever wondered why it is that some people follow through and achieve success with something while others either don’t follow through – e.g. they buy a coaching program or book and never use it – or they follow through but don’t seem to achieve positive results?
I have. Many times. And it’s really frustrating because if someone buys my product I truly want them to use it and to achieve results from it.
I know it’s not just me because I’ve had many discussions about this topic with several colleagues in the last couple of years.
Thankfully, John Reese and Frank Kern, two well-known and highly respected internet business professionals, wanted to know the answer to the very same question. So they asked one man who was sure to be able to explain this … Anthony Robbins. Better still, they recorded this interview so we can all benefit from it.
What Is Market Research And Why Is It So Important?
These are important questions to answer for any small- and medium-sized business (and indeed large companies as well). Unfortunately, many small business owners disregard the importance of market research or otherwise know little about it. It is not at all uncommon for small business market research to be ignored or not completed fully. This often spells the downfall of small businesses, as they are out of touch with the wants and needs of motivated buyers.
The Danger of Assumptions
Many small business owners assume that they understand what their customers want and what motivates them to buy. But without accurately testing the market you can never be sure. There is a danger involved in assuming that you know what your client-base wants and what motivates them to choose one supplier or provider over another. The danger is in missing your target audience and not connecting with them. That loss of connection means a loss of business or sales, and for many, ultimately business failure.
Rather than assume you know what your core target group wants, be sure! The only way to be sure is to test your market through thorough market research, and find out precisely how to incite them to action and excite them about your business.
What is Market Research?
One of the greatest reasons small businesses fail to effectively complete market research is that they are unsure about what it is.
In simplest terms, market research is finding out what people want and will buy (whether that be services or goods), and how much they will pay for it. Thorough market research consists of testing and evaluating the market through different means to determine the demand, usefulness and likelihood of acceptance of a product across different demographics. It answers very specifically who will purchase a product or service based on characteristics such as:
age
gender
location
income
other variable characteristics.
Armed with this data, business owners can very narrowly target their audience and clientele, and thus can commit resources, product development and advertising to connecting with this audience and very specifically serve their needs. Market research helps small businesses plan for every aspect of promotion and sales, including:
price
advertising and marketing
product features and development
improvements and modifications
Small Business Marketing Research Downfalls
In regards to market research, the downfall of small businesses often comes from nothing more than a lack of it. In other instances, the downfall comes as the result of business owners who become too personally ‘attached’ to their ideas. It is essential to maintain objectivity in marketing matters and use the research to support the most effective strategy.
Understanding market research and its importance is the first step towards taking full advantage of it. The next step is to learn how to perform it effectively and accurately so that you can capitalise on this very important business tool. Know where market research falls into your business strategy, and learn how to make the connections with your core group that will translate into business success.
Back when I was in my late teens – not all that long ago really – I vividly remember an occasion where I asked a simple question and didn’t get the answer I was expecting.
I was working in a licensing position where we regularly had to forward copies of permits to regional offices throughout the state and we would use post codes in order to determine which office to forward the documents to. It didn’t take long to learn most of the state’s post codes by heart, but whenever we didn’t know the post code for a particular area my co-workers and I would just ask out loud and someone else would surely know.
On this one occasion, I made the mistake of asking our supervisor for a post code. Her reply was a short, sharp, “Do I look like a post code booklet? Look it up!”
I was a little miffed at the time. After all, we were merely being efficient. Why waste an entire minute or so looking it up when someone could just tell you in a few seconds, while you continued working away?
However, miffed as I was, that was an incredibly powerful lesson for me. After that, I made it a policy to rarely ask for help unless I had first attempted to solve the problem myself.
This skill has served me well over the years, particularly when it comes to small business management skills.
There have been countless times when I didn’t know how to do something and could have phoned someone for help or submitted a support ticket. But by first striving to find the answer myself I have saved many, many hours of precious time by not having to submit the question and wait for a reply. More importantly, I have learnt so much more than I would have from just asking up front, not to mention understanding the process more by researching it myself.
And let’s face it, generally it can be a pretty good feeling when you’ve figured out how to do something for yourself.
So, what’s my favourite tool for problem solving these days?
Google!
(Or Yahoo or Bing or MSN)
While there are some areas where I probably wouldn’t trust information from the Internet, you can find answers to so much here, especially when it comes to business issues or how to do something with your computer or a specific software application.
Whenever I need to know how to do something now, I simply ‘Google it’.
Now, a handy hint here: it helps to be specific. I will generally type something like, “How do I do xyz in ABC?” In fact, it was by searching on, “How to add a custom header to WordPress Thesis theme” that I found this excellent blog post on how to add a banner image to your Thesis header – a post I’m so glad I found and have since recommended to others many times over.
If your original question brings up too many possible answers, try being more specific with what you search for. Or if you don’t get enough results, be a little broader in your search terms.
If you want something instructional, going direct to YouTube can be a good idea. Again, you can find out how to do so much by searching for it in YouTube.
Sometimes getting the best answers for problem solving comes down to asking the right questions. But then if all else fails … ask someone else for help
Here’s a good video by Brian Tracy, where he shares some great tips on some key factors to successful strategic planning. I particularly like the part about taking responsibility.
Whether you manage a small, micro or home-based business, this video is well worth watching.
Are you in business or just passing the time with a hobby that happens to earn you some nice extra cash?
Is there a difference? How can you tell when you’ve crossed the line? Why is it important to know?
It is important to know the difference between a hobby and a business for several reasons. First of all, if you are making money with your hobby you could be doing better by growing it into a full-fledged, dedicated and focused business. You could be doing more of what you like and earning enough money to support yourself. But there are also more serious issues at hand.
If you think your business is just a hobby but your government disagrees and thinks you are in business, you could be ignoring some very important responsibilities. Let’s take a look at the difference between a hobby and a business and talk about how you can find out more to decide which you are in.
Hobby Or Business?
By definition a hobby is something that you do for pleasure and relaxation, a regular activity that you do because you like it. A business on the other hand is a line of work, or a company or organization. Often people who have a hobby and somehow end up making money with it will think that they are in business. But talent alone does not make a profitable business – a business is much more involved than a hobby.
There are two basic defining lines between businesses and hobbies – legal and organization. And you should be aware that even if you don’t consider what you do to be a business, some authorities and tax agencies might.
Getting It Right Legally
From the perspective of the government, your level of income and/or time in a business is what normally determines which category your activity falls under. For some, there may be more defining terms as well, such as legal partnerships and corporations. In any case, you will need to be clear about what your legal status is so that you know what your legal responsibilities are.
Status and responsibilities will vary depending on where you live and do business. Start off by contacting the taxation agency for your country, or researching on their website. Next, speak with a good business accountant or tax attorney. They should be able to advise you whether you need to file any legal documents, and/or how to claim income and expenses.
Planning To Succeed
Real businesses are not haphazard, leaving their success to circumstance; they are planned and organized entities. It is true that not all businesses organize themselves well, but if you are thinking about turning a hobby into a business then you need to make some fundamental decisions and plan the business accordingly.
You will have to do more than find time to enjoy your hobby; you will have to make provision for all aspects of running a business, including marketing, legalities, record-keeping, market research, and more.
Success in small business is not only a matter of generating revenue. It is also a matter of planning and researching, along with dedication to developing a sustainable stream of income. To do that, you need to be clear about what your intentions are, as well as what is required of you legally.
When you want to do more than have fun with a hobby, you need to take those extra steps to transform your passion into a sustainable business.
When something doesn’t work the way it should or things don’t go right in one way or another, it’s easy to immediately play the blame game. We’ve all been there, I’m sure.
You visit a website and get a ‘page not found error’ so you start blaming the site owner for mucking up their URLs.
You click on a link within a document or page and a blank page opens, so again, the site owner or whoever put this page together has stuffed up.
An email or fax you were expecting still hasn’t arrived, so you jump up and down at the unreliable so-and-so who promised they’d send it straight away.
When you manage a business and have other family, community and social commitments you often find yourself rushing to do things. But when something doesn’t work and your first thought is to immediately phone or email the person or company concerned, who has obviously stuffed up somehow, take a moment to stop to think about whether the problem actually lies with you (shock, gasp!)
Or perhaps not necessarily you, but maybe your computer, software, fax line, email program.
For example, in the case of a web page that doesn’t exist, are you sure you entered the web site address correctly? If you clicked on a link, did your email program break the link? If so, you should be able to access the web page by copying and pasting the entire address into your Internet browser’s address bar.
When you’re having trouble connecting to a particular web site it’s a good idea to check some other sites to determine if it’s just this site you can’t connect to or all sites, which may indicate a problem with your own Internet or modem.
If you clicked on a link within a web page and the new page or document didn’t open or opened as a blank page, perhaps there’s a setting within your Internet or security settings that is preventing it from opening. Or it may be that your firewall or anti-virus software is blocking it for some reason. Could it be that the document that should open was created with a program that you don’t have on your computer? Or maybe you need to get the latest updates for one of your programs, such as Flash or Java.
My examples here are predominantly focused with technology, but other factors can also be the cause of things not going the way they should. That’s okay … the point I want to stress here is that sometimes the ‘obvious culprit’ isn’t actually the cause of your frustrations.
So before you start blaming others (and perhaps embarrass yourself in the process) take a few moments to look at the entire situation in order to solve the problem. Then, if you can’t find a solution, contact the person or company concerned and – rather than telling them they need to get their act together – politely let them know that you’re having trouble accessing abc or you still haven’t received the email/fax/phone call/payment, and do they have any suggestions as to how you can resolve this.
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– I vividly remember an occasion where I asked a simple question and didn’t get the answer I was expecting.
