Starting a business??

[Tigger]

Hi everyone
I'm thinking of starting a business, along the lines of consulting in the advertising industry. Can anyone tell me how to research a business idea? All the books say you must do market research but how do you go about this? :)

[toodles]

Jasmine,

It would help if you could be a little more specific, such as, is this a new concept or a service already being offered?

[Tigger]

It's a new concept targeted at real estate agents, a bit like an advertising consultant, I still have to work out all the fine details but I need to know if its viable. I know it's a service the real estates would love because it would save them the time and hassle but I don't know if it's something they're willing to pay for.

[toodles]

To research something like this, I would suggest you put a very general questionnaire together of a wide concept of the services you could offer and send it to agents with a SASE. Whatever your response you can expect 1/3 of them to reply back to you so depending on how intricate you want to get with it would depend on how many you want to send out. I would definitely include in the questionnaire how much they would be willing to pay for a service such as that (do not ask if they would pay for it, ask how much) and if they have used anything like it in the past. You can even ask them what would make this service valuable to them. Any good business startup has a few mentors to help them make it successful, so see if you can find any agents willing to help you with fine tuning it. Maybe you can advertise their agency for their help or work out some sort of partnership. I would send it to agents who are very successful in their career, and this would help protect you from having someone branch off your idea. Usually those very successful love what they do and are not looking for an extra "project" but would want to make the most of their time.