Hello, need advice!!!

[jmackie1517]

Hi everyone, name is Joe. I am new to the forum. I have been looking around quite a bit and was not really sure where to post this question, so I figured where else but the Introduction page, maybe a lot of people will read it and I will get plenty of suggestions... So here's where I need help....

I have a business idea, I know what kind of company I want to open. I have the financing and I have a basic idea of the start up prices and what I will need. I know how many employees I will need, I have pretty much everything figured out with obviously a little ironing out needed. But I am having one problem, HOW DO I FIND OUT THAT THIS IS SOMETHING MY COMMUNITY WOULD BE INTERESTED IN? The company I want to open would be used for the local residents only, and I am just not sure how to communicate with the residents of the town I live in and nearby cities to find out if this is something they are interested in.

I live in a town of about 25,000. I live in a Chicago suburb, with towns surrounding with sizes of 200,000+, 100,000+, and 50,000+ etc. I just need help in how I contact these people for some sort of survey to find out if they like the idea.

ANY IDEAS?!?

[MarieS]

Hey Joe --

It is a bit challenging to give input without knowing more particulars...but in a general sense, my suggestion would be to narrow down the goal of questioning "COMMUNITY" and get closer to defining your target market.

Demographics(how much do they earn, make, spend, age, education), Geographics (how far will you reach? how far will they go? how do they find you?),
Psychographics (what's important to them, what do the do?)

What other businesses and services are they likely to use that would be a good business for you to network with? Perhaps you can connect with some of these business owners, ask their input, AND build your referral network.

How would your clients hear about or learn of your business? Can you use that outlet for sourcing information? Are people ASKING FOR IT? Why do YOU THINK there is a need? What PROBLEM are you solving?

These are starter questions....first you find them, they you can start to survey.

[Corey Bryant]

Welcome to the Small Business Forums Joe!

[jmackie1517]

Originally Posted by MarieS

Hey Joe --

It is a bit challenging to give input without knowing more particulars...but in a general sense, my suggestion would be to narrow down the goal of questioning "COMMUNITY" and get closer to defining your target market.

Demographics(how much do they earn, make, spend, age, education), Geographics (how far will you reach? how far will they go? how do they find you?),
Psychographics (what's important to them, what do the do?)

What other businesses and services are they likely to use that would be a good business for you to network with? Perhaps you can connect with some of these business owners, ask their input, AND build your referral network.

How would your clients hear about or learn of your business? Can you use that outlet for sourcing information? Are people ASKING FOR IT? Why do YOU THINK there is a need? What PROBLEM are you solving?

These are starter questions....first you find them, they you can start to survey.

Thanks for the response, I'm getting help at the moment in creating a survey, but my problem is how do I get my survey to the people, How do I get in touch with them to see how receptive they are to what I have to offer.

[Shkutan]

Hi there!
I am not sure what exactly you mean:
a. how to know whom to survey (i.e. how to get contact details) OR
b. what means to use to contact people (phone, mail, etc.) OR
c. both a and b

It also depends on how much money you want to spend on this research.

This is just a speculation on my behalf but here is an idea (and I came up with it from my experience in marketing and communications):
1. Obtain a mailing list from a company that specializes in them
2. Organize some sort of free event in the local community (may be together with a local chamber of commerce) it may be connected in its theme to the type of product/service you want to intoduce. It can be just some free drinks
3. Invite people (send out invitations, it's better if they are "hard copy" invitations so that people cannot delete them like e-mails, may be in the form of greeting cards, you can check my website for that)
4. Ask them to fill in the survey there and then and submit it for the raffle (pick 2-3 winners later)
This will work in a small community like yours. This will not only give you survey results but also will be a huge advertising of your business if indeed you decide to implement the idea.

But this requires some money invested so as I said it depends on the budget you have.

Good luck!

[cbscreative]

Getting people to take the survey is another challenge, as well as getting untainted results. You may want to seek professional help on that.

Welcome to the forum.

[jmackie1517]

Originally Posted by Shkutan

Hi there!
I am not sure what exactly you mean:
a. how to know whom to survey (i.e. how to get contact details) OR
b. what means to use to contact people (phone, mail, etc.) OR
c. both a and b

Both A and B... After reading your post a couple times I thought maybe going to our town Fair/Carnival. Obviously I would need to check to make sure I can legally be there having people fill out surveys for me. Is this an option, seems with a small budget on research this would be something that I could do and have a raffle etc. to get people to fill out the survey.

Also I haven't looked into this but if anyone has any ideas they'd be greatly appreciated. I was also thinking of speaking with the local grocery stores, retail stores etc. I would check with them to see if I could set up shop outside there store to conduct my survey. Is something like this an option or am I going to be turned down every time?

[jmackie1517]

Originally Posted by cbscreative

Getting people to take the survey is another challenge, as well as getting untainted results. You may want to seek professional help on that.

Welcome to the forum.

Results can still be "tainted" even with professional help right? No survey is going to get 100% honest results...this is just an assumption.

[lipodcast]

Doing some marketing research and contacting your local chamber of commerce is the best way to find your answers.

[Coach Morse]

Hi Joe,
Welcome to sbf!

You don't need to survey everyone, just a small sampling of the community and preferably (as previously mentioned) from your target audience. You could easily call people on the phone and ask them to take the survey. You could contact community groups and organizations to see if they would be interested in participating in the survey, and so on...

Survey 100 people and you'll get a general idea... survey 300 and you'll get a better idea... survey 500 and you'll have a sound idea of how interested community members will be.

Good luck with your new venture!
gm