Market research help

shamroqshamroq subscriber Posts: 1
edited March 2007 in Business Planning
I am writing a business plan. I am stuck.  I do not
know where to research statistical data as far as my market, projected earnings,
costs, inventory, etc. What kind of resources can I use for this? I have scheduled
2 meetings with the local business authority. I am hoping they can guide me. I
am only looking for resources to help me do this. I am not looking for anything
to be completed for me, thank you
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Comments

  • KteaKtea subscriber Posts: 1
    You didn`t really give me any information to go on, but the US census bureau is a good place to start.  After that, try looking into your trade association for help.  As for costs, call around local ads to find the going rate for renting an office space if that applies to you, etc.My market is new parents and people who buy things for them.  Went
    online, found out there are 4 million births in the US per year.  My
    products also relate to hard surface flooring in the home, so I found
    out that Hard surface flooring is like a 6 billion dollar industry in the US,
    should grow at whatever rate, and x percent is household sales, I don`t
    remember all the numbers off the top of my head but you get the picture.As for sales (earnings)  I`m stuck on that one too.  How do you know how many widgets you`re actually going to sell?
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  • MNGrillGuyMNGrillGuy subscriber Posts: 2 Member
    Sounds like the cart is before the horse.  You need to nail down your costs at a minimum.  Sales projections are always difficult when you have 0 sales.  Get some quotes, build your product.  Try sell a few.  Then you can think about roughing out a BP.  The BP can not be the first step.  But it doesn`t mean you shouldn`t start thinking about all of those things.
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  • shamroqshamroq subscriber Posts: 1
    Thank you for the replies.  My plan is for a Bar and
    Grill. So projecting costs and inventory will be difficult but I can
    guesstimate them I believe.  As far as projected earnings I am
    stuck.  The business to this point is in my head and not a lot of folks
    visit there.  So projecting how much business I am to do is
    difficult.  The plan I have is moving along slowly but this is holding me
    up.  I didn`t want to decide on a certain structure size until I actually
    found the right building.  This will determine how many I can seat and so
    forth.  Maybe I should pick a number of max occupancy and build from there?
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