Business Ideas and Conducting Market Research

Welcome to 2025 everyone!  A new year means a fresh start.  It also means a chance to do something exciting you probably have never done before.  Some of you may already be small business owners, but many of you who visit this website may not have a set business structure yet.  Maybe you have thought about starting your own business but may have gotten confused or frustrated about where to start.  I’m here to tell you, it is perfectly okay because this is the year to finally take those first steps.  If you are one of those people who is at a loss for where to begin, we are here to help. You may also want to also go back and take a look at one of our previous articles titled “20 Questions to Consider If You're Serious About Starting a Business” to get in the proper mindset.

The first important step you need to take when considering starting a small business is to begin the “idea and research” phase.  In this phase, there is no real pressure because you are simply just bouncing ideas around and gathering information about them.  You have to take baby steps to make sure you properly set a solid foundation for your potential business. I also want you to keep in mind that both current and potential business owners can use the tips and tools outlined in this post:

What to Consider

Here are 4 important factors to consider when creating ideas for a small business:

• Consider what problems you will be solving. Motivation for the best business ideas come from trying to solve a problem for someone. Look at problems people have from various perspectives before coming up with potential solutions.  What are some specific frustrations and problems people are currently facing and what can you do to fix it and monetize from it?

• Consider what and how many potential products or services you will need as a solution to the problems you are trying to solve.  Factor in what resources you will need to make this happen.

• Imagine yourself as not just a small business owner but also put yourself in the shoes of a consumer of your potential product or service.

• Consider what your ideal customers look like, act like, think like etc. (outline the typical demographics such as age, socioeconomic status, family-oriented, etc.). Create customer profiles of your ideal customers to help you understand their needs and motivations.  Your product or service may not be for everyone, and that is okay as long as you have your target audience in mind.

Generating Business Ideas

Here are 2 common tactics to come up with business ideas:

• Brainstorming – This is the most common method of generating ideas.  You can even brainstorm with other individuals by bouncing ideas off each other.  As you come up with a list of ideas for products and services, you can simply write them down with pen and paper, or you can type them and save them as a file to revisit.  With brainstorming, the goal is to just get a small list of a few things you may be interested in trying (even if some sound a bit out of the ordinary or outlandish).

• SCAMPER Technique – This is an abbreviation for the following: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse.  What this SCAMPER simply means is that you can take existing ideas of products and services and think of ways to modify them.  You can use this method if you have trouble with coming up with original products or services.  Think of it like this: how many times have you been a consumer and have used a product or service and have thought about how it can be improved or modified? Use that mindset to come up with more ideas.

  
  

Conducting Market Research

Before blindly creating a product or service, it is imperative to do your research on that specific field or market.  Market research helps you not only identify key trends and problems, but it can also help you identify other statistics through data analysis.  You want to be knowledgeable.  You need to gather information (statistics, reports, surveys, demographics, customer preferences and behaviors, etc.) on the following 3 things:

• Your target audience/customers

• The demand for specific products and/or services

• Potential business competitors

Market Research Tools

To conduct accurate research in-depth, you must have the right tools.  Below I have a few suggestions for tools that I have found to be especially useful (and all suggestions have FREE versions available):

• Social Media – It is easy to search for trending topics on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, etc.  You can use these platforms to see what other people are saying about the business topics you are interested in.  You are also able to view valuable feedback to get an idea of problems that need solutions.  In addition, you can view other business competitors on social media to see how they operate and what products and services would rival yours.

• Google Trends – This is a great tool that allows you to search keywords to see how they are trending throughout specific regions.  You can search the entire United States, or you can narrow down your search to see how your business idea, product or service is trending by state or city.

• Pew Research Center – This website provides a ton of research on various topics.  The data comes from polls, demographic research, scientific analysis, and more.  This can help you find out problems that need solutions as well as trends on certain topics.

• Semrush – This is another platform that allows you to enter keywords to see trends in data and competitor data.  Although the platform promotes the paid version, you are still able to create a free account with limited daily use.

• MyMap.AI – This is a FREE business idea generator.  The awesome thing about this AI tool is that it creates a visual mind map for you.  All you have to do is type in your business idea keyword, and it will create a mind map of different avenues that you can take for your business.

• Answer The Public – You can register for a FREE account to gain access to raw data based on search results.  This allows you to see what people are searching for and asking the most questions about.  You can use this data to find a customer’s pain points.  If you know what the people want and are asking about, then you can have a leg up on your competitors.

Summary

Coming up with business ideas and doing market research is important in ensuring you have a successful business. Some of the details may also be an important part of creating a business plan. Creating ideas and researching the market continues being important even after the business has been established so that you are able to stay relevant and profitable.

***Don't forget to come back and look at our Nacogdoches County MBD blog for more useful knowledge! ***

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