Business Plan and Market Research

Hello All,

I have searched this site but have not found an answer to this particular query, I hope that someone can help me.

I am in the process of preparing my business plan for a new Web Technologies start-up. As part of the plan a significant amount of Market Research must be done to identify a market for our service.

I have used the CSO and various government agencies to find reports on the state of the Market in the area, and although these are somewhat helpful, I am coming up short every time.

Basically I am looking for advice from those who have been through this before on how to find the "key market indicators" necessary to prove a market. I should mention that I am currently unemployed and I am trying to do as much Market Research as possible for free, as I do not have any extra funds to support it.

Despite endless searching I have not found the correct data to detail the state of the Market in that area of ICT.

Also, various extremely helpful publications such as Brian O Kane's "Starting a Business in Ireland" suggest that you supply an analysis of compeditors in the market, including their company size, turnover and profitability.

• Where does one find this information (short of calling them up and asking them!)?
• Do companies release this information on a yearly basis, and if so where?
• If not, how is one expected to produce these figures?
• Where does one find out particular Market sizes in Ireland?

Please excuse any gaping holes in my knowledge. I unfortunately have no prior experience in business, and my skills rest solely in Web Technologies.

I really would appreciate any advice at all, as setting up a company on a shoestring is turning out to be quite a challenge!

Thank you in advance.

Ok, so far no replies. Surely there is someone else here that has done a business plan and found this to be a problem, or found the solution to it?

Anyone?

I'm amazed that no one has had an answer to this query.

You're doing a lot of "bumping"...

Have you contacted your local county enterprise board?
They can give advice, grants and mentoring services.

www.cso.ie can provide useful info on demographics for instance.

There are many academic books which will provide real world case studies of different business models and research - so here I suggest a good library. DCU's new library is an excellent resource and is available to a limited number of members of the public as far as I'm aware. Membership cost not expensive.

Many seminars are run up and down the country on business start ups. A lot of these are run by government agencies so again are not epensive considering your current employment status.

PLC's publish annual accounts and reports which can add have insight on many aspects including future trends for instance.

Start by contacting your local enterprise board who may be in a position to give a small grant and good advice into the bargain.

Purple said:

You're doing a lot of "bumping"...

Have you contacted your local county enterprise board?
They can give advice, grants and mentoring services.

Click to expand...

Purple, I assure you that bumping was not my intent, I was just voicing my surprise that despite the many queries here regarding business plans, that no one with experience of doing one was able to help. However I do appreciate your suggestion, I have indeed been in touch with my CEB, and have in fact done one of those wonderful "start your own business courses", which are really great, but in the down and dirty of writing the plan, I have found some key resources missing. I am returning to them all the time and if I find the answer to my problem I will post it here to help others!

flattea2, thank you, the CSO is great and has helped me somewhat, but the annual accounts published by PLCs seem to be few and far between(apparently it is not a requirement). In the last few days it has been the CSO that has helped me the most, with a prompt and friendly service, they are brilliant. Sometimes it is hard to know when to stop researching and how much info is enough, but that might be a bad habit I picked up in academia. Thanks again for the suggestions both of you.

ganpingin, Do you have anybody on-board in your business who have industry experience in the sector into which you are seeking to sell? If not I would say that this is your next stop.

Purple, yes, the other director of the company has industry experience. However getting the facts and figures (profitability/size etc) of other companies is still a roadblock for us as yet, as this kind of information is not habitually released to the general public. Again, short of ringing compeditors up (unlikely to produce a result!), we are at a bit of a loss.

I don't think you will get access to that sort of sensative commercial information.

Hi,
If there are organisations in the UK / US within the same market space and are listed on a stock exchange then you can use google / yahoo financials (or Hoover business directory) to access financial documents that are release to the exchange e.g turnover per year / employee figures / net profit / EPS / turnover breakdown / liabilities etc.
It can give you a good idea of market growth, competitor performance etc

Enterprise Ireland have a teriffic business library with full access to Mintel / gartner reports etc in Glasnevin, D9 which you may be able to access. It is worth a call

Best of luck with it.

I am in the process of preparing my business plan for a new Web Technologies start-up. As part of the plan a significant amount of Market Research must be done to identify a market for our service.

Click to expand...

You have a service, and now you want to know if anyone wants it, is this correct? Why not flip it around the other way, and provide a service you know people want?

Basically I am looking for advice from those who have been through this before on how to find the "key market indicators" necessary to prove a market.

Click to expand...

If there is competition, there is probably a market. Caution should be exercised though, the market could be saturated, undervalued, one or two very big players etc.
If your idea is original, and there is no competition, beware because there soon could be.

bizz1 said:

Hi,
If there are organisations in the UK / US within the same market space and are listed on a stock exchange then you can use google / yahoo financials (or Hoover business directory) to access financial documents that are release to the exchange e.g turnover per year / employee figures / net profit / EPS / turnover breakdown / liabilities etc.
It can give you a good idea of market growth, competitor performance etc

Enterprise Ireland have a teriffic business library with full access to Mintel / gartner reports etc in Glasnevin, D9 which you may be able to access. It is worth a call

Best of luck with it.

Click to expand...

Thank you bizz1, that is extremely helpful!

Thank you one and all for all the help. AAM is a great site.