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Re: market research Aug 13, 2009 1:47 PM
Clairegirl:
There are a couple of different ways that you can go to gather data. One option as you know is paying for it. The down side is that you may not have sufficient funds for this purpose. The upside is that you can get better data (when partnering with the right company) while freeing up your time to focus on other aspects of your business.
Here is a link to the Resources page on my site. If you scroll down, you will see a section for Market Research. Some of these links lead to companies that require payment for in-depth data while others are free.
http://thesologuide.com/resources/
If you need help with your business plan, here's the link to a page on my site with free info:
http://thesologuide.com/planning/
Other options that you can pursue are speaking with your local Chamber of Commerce for sales statistics in your area. Plus, the city may have additional data as they want to help promote business startups in your city. If you are looking for other regional, national or international data, you may be able to find some useful information from some of the public companies that service that clothing retail industry.
Get a list of the larger public retail companies. Go to their Investor Relation page and then find their SEC Filings. Typically in their most recent 10Q statements they will give their views of trends in the industry. Plus, you can see how their business is trending along with the other public companies. They offer financial statements in the Investor Relations section, too that may provide you with data that you are looking for.
However, if there is niche specific data that you require, you will either have to spend quite a bit of time doing research on your own and speak with other like businesses or hire on a partner like GBIntel.
Hope this helps.
Doug Dolan
The Solopreneur's Guide
http://thesologuide.com
