A friend of mine recently said she was doing some hashtag research for a blog post she was creating and said, “I have just 5 minutes, that’s all the time I’ve really got for it.”
It makes total sense. Many entrepreneurs, especially the solo variety, don’t have a lot of time for research or find it too daunting to even start. Many times, they’ll hire it out. Think SEO research, hashtag research, market research. It’s too much research already, we’re busy DOING things!
So what happens? The research doesn’t get done. We go about our business day, making decisions, creating things. But there’s always a question in the back of our mind…am I headed in the right direction? Is this what my customers need? Where do I even start to figure it out?
Okay, so there’s that.
Now let’s talk about buying a car. Wait, what? Stay with me a minute.
When you set out to buy a car, you may start your search with a list of functions. I need a 3-row SUV or I need a pick-up or I NEED a sports car…you get the idea. Then, you may do an internet search for car brands, maybe right away, you’ll look for a specific color. Maybe you already know what brand you want and just need to choose a model. You basically start with what you know and go from there.
Whatever the case is, the minute you narrow down your list even just a little bit, you start seeing that car EVERYWHERE. Since when did all my neighbors start driving my chosen car? And everyone at the grocery store, too?? I don’t know about you, but it’s at this point that I wonder whether I should choose a different car or use these frequent sightings as reassurance that the car I’ve got my sights on is a good, dependable model. (More on that conundrum later.)
So how does this apply to market research?
Glad you asked!
Step 1 in the Finding Your Wedge process is creating your Starting Point Sentence. It’s a bit like that first narrowing down of your car list. Suddenly, once you narrow your choices or put something on paper, you start seeing stuff about your Starting Point Sentence everywhere. Just like that car.
You’ll notice an article on a news website you frequent. Or, a blog you subscribe to will feature information about your niche. Or, you’ll notice a business that’s also operating in your niche.
It’s not magic. (But wouldn’t that be cool?) It’s that you have made a conscious effort to narrow down your choices, your direction, your idea. And that process creates focus. It makes an overwhelming idea manageable. You know that saying about eating an elephant? (Yikes, but spoiler alert, you do it one bite at a time.)
That’s really the goal of market research. It’s taking a big world of options and putting some framing around it so that YOU can move forward in your business in a manageable way. And, in a way that takes into account what’s going on in your market, so that yours is an informed path.
If you’re here reading this, chances are you’ve already downloaded my subscriber freebie that walks you through all 4 steps of the Finding Your Wedge process. If you haven’t had time to get to all 4 steps, I get that, but I would encourage you at the very least to do Step 1.
Create your Starting Point Sentence. This 5-minute exercise creates a focus that – at a basic level – will walk you right into Step 2 and so on. Pretty soon, even in a very informal way, you’ll have done some pretty cool market research that will help guide your next steps.
Let me know how it goes, I’d love to hear what you find out…about your business or about that new car.
-Julie