Worth getting a Market research consultant?

J

jccf2003

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My partner and I will be starting a landscaping business in the spring and at the moment we are doing our research / taking CEB classes etc. One of the things we keep coming across is the need for *market* research and of course it makes perfect sense that you would be much better off going into a business armed with knowledge about what customers want, what competitors there are and what their strengths and weaknesses are etc... but it's difficult to come by that information.

So, for a small business, is it worth getting a consultant to do a market survey? I really like the idea but I don't know where to find someone who would do this for a small start up and how much they might charge - any ideas??

Thanks!
 
jccf2003 said:
So, for a small business, is it worth getting a consultant to do a market survey? I really like the idea but I don't know where to find someone who would do this for a small start up and how much they might charge - any ideas??Thanks!
Click to expand...

Why do you need to hire a consultant ? Why not do it yourself ? Market research can be as simple as knocking on someones door and asking them a question.

If you are deteremined to get someone else to do the work you could try approaching a college or university to see if any students would take it on as part of a project?

Also, what do you need the market research to tell you ? Your target market, the size of the market, the average price, what ? Have you done any research before deciding to go into landscaping?

For what it's worth I would never get anyone to do my garden without references and pictures of previous work done so you may need to think about what your first job will be.
 
Of course we've done research before deciding on landscaping! My husband has worked in the area for years - though not in this country. And we're not starting out cold - he has a number of (Irish and American) projects under his belt for a portfolio & (Irish) references.

As for the market research and knocking on doors... well, I suppose I don't think they'd be completely honest if I wasn't impartial, and I figured that someone who did it for a living would be able to get the most acurrate responses. We'd be looking for information mainly about what the competition is like and what their strengths and weaknesses are. We know the areas (of town) we want to target and it would also be nice to know what those areas consider "reasonable" in terms of cost. We have an idea of what we could charge, but nothing to back us up. All of the CEB courses talking about how important market research is, and we want to do this properly to give us the best chance at success.
 
Have a go at this get out and about get your toe in,ads in local papers shop windows etc,with the number of new private houses and estates going up you could do very well just get yourself established
 
To be honest spending money on market research sounds totally OTT for a landscaping business. Engaging a consultant to do this for you would be an atrocious waste of money. The best research you could do is to talk to someone (obviously not one of your local prospective competitors) who has established a similar business in the past.
 
That's exactly what I was wondering, because it would want to be pretty inexpensive to make it a financially sensible decision and I have absolutely NO clue as to what someone would charge. My feeling was that it would be too expensive for a small business but i thought I should check and make sure first!
Thanks :)
 
Hey jccf2003,

First of all when starting a business keep all costs down to a complete minimum untill the money starts flowing in. My advice is if you think theres something you need a consultant in - write down specifically the questions you would want answered, then go to an online book store and buy a few books that talk about those topics. You can get an experts lifetime worth of knowledge in a book that will only cost you 20quid.
 
Consultants in this business would be a huge waste of money. If you forgive the pun you need to 'get your hands dirty' and get out among the prospective customers yourself.

If you want to spend a modest amount, why not do a printed postcard of a sample garden you have done, and ask people a few simple market research questions and have a prize of doing somebody's garden for free in prize draw from all the entrants. this will cost you less than a consultant and give you a local reference site at the same time. A a massive mail drop of these in the estates youu expect business to come from or get one of the leaflet distribution companires to do it for you.
You can then write to all entrants afterwards and while sympathising with them not winning, offer them a 25% discount for taking part...

just an idea, BTW, my garden is ****!

R
 
Most market research companies will run regular nationwide surveys and will allow customers to buy one or more questions on this survey. It would not be as expensive as hiring a consultant or commissioning a full-blown research project.

The DIY option is also possible... identify your catchment area, get the profile of this area (try CSO for free statistics) , select a representative sample and go knocking on doors with your questions! Be careful of falling into the trap of "asking people you meet" what they think - to get usable info you need to gauge opinions of representative unbiased respondents.

Best of Luck!
 
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