When creating a business it can be important to find a gap in the market to help your business succeed. As you probably already know there are many types of business and many of them will most likely be the same as the idea if the idea is basic. Having a business that is the exact same as another business makes it harder for your business to do better than the other. There is direct competition with an already established company which will make it much harder for you to get your business out there and known. This is why it is important to find a gap in the market to give you the best chance of success. But, how do you find a gap in the market for a product or service you have in mind? There are many of the same services and products available so there must be something that stops other people investigating into a new area.
Most of the time the only gap you will find is a high quality service for a low price or a low quality service for a high price and we all know that those ideas will not work at all. In this situation it is very much down to the least amount of competition in an area that you know well and are good at. Let’s find out some information about how to spot a gap in the market in an area you like.
What would you like?
Currently there are a lot of shops and services as I have mentioned earlier. However think a little to yourself, what service or product would you like that is not available to yourself currently. For example I find there is not enough activities or shops aimed towards children in my area so that could be my idea of what I would like to see operating in my local community.
Research
There are two main types of research, Primary (or field) and secondary (or desk) research. This can help you find out what people in your local community want or need in your community. Primary research consists of telephone surveys, questionnaires and other forms of research that involves asking people questions about their opinions on what the community needs and what can be done to outdo the other, larger businesses. This is a very important stage in thinking of a business that can do well. Desk research consists of searching the world wide web and seeing what would suit your area as well as reading other documents. For example, it can be good for seeing who your audience is in the local area. Census’s are conducted occasionally by the government (at least, they are in the UK) and this can help people know if the target market for the business idea consists in that area. However the problem with this is that this type of research can often be outdated.
Gaps can be hard to spot but if you do the correct research and thinking then you can be on to a really successful business. So do your research and ask your community what they think other, larger businesses do not do that could be a key gem to your business taking off.
