Starting a business can be difficult especially if you are not sure if it will work. Market research is vital for ensuring success since 42% of all businesses fail because they lack a market for their product. It’s easy to say you need to do research, but what exactly does that mean? In this video, I will cover how to use free resources to conduct your market research and what to look for in your research to increase your success. Step 1. Why do the Research? The first step we need to do is ask: why are we doing this research? Now, for most of our clients who come to the SBDC, they are looking to start a new business. So they need to know what the industry looks like if they are just getting into it or getting more information about the larger industry if they have been in it for a while but may not know the big picture. The other aspect of why we are doing the research is what is the goal of your marketing that this research will do? For an existing business, you may have been in b