Hi All!,

 

I am in the process of starting my own web design business and obviously as I am new to the business world have found it increasingly difficult to find the answers to certain required questions when setting up.

 

Is there anyone on the forum who has set up their own businesses in the past that could offer some advice on my current situation:

 

I am in the business planning stages and conducting market research, I am wanting find where to go to obtain certain figures such as:

 

1.) How to find out the size of the potential market (possibly by looking at how many people take out websites each year)??

 

2.) Looking at how you discover who the market leaders are?

 

 

 

I have been to my local library who have a business section and a local studies section but the staff did not have the knowledge and there didnt seem to be any material in their that would give away the information I was seeking.

 

Does anyone on here (who has perhaps set up their own business before) know the best place to carry out good market research. Is there any rescources avaliable to me that perhaps through in experience have over looked?

 

 

 

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

Thanks!

Hello,

 

Some more information would be useful. What market are you aiming for? Design? Development? Startup businesses or everyone? Where are you based, how far are you intending to go for your work? your area only or national?

 

You sound like you are getting ready to pitch to the dragons, or are you doing some cashflow forecasts? For this sort of thing, it would be useful to know how experienced you are.

 

 

Is there any particular reason why you are trying to startup a company, rather than joining an existing one?

 

 

Reaper

Hello,

 

Some more information would be useful. What market are you aiming for? Design? Development? Startup businesses or everyone? Where are you based, how far are you intending to go for your work? your area only or national?

 

You sound like you are getting ready to pitch to the dragons, or are you doing some cashflow forecasts? For this sort of thing, it would be useful to know how experienced you are.

 

 

Is there any particular reason why you are trying to startup a company, rather than joining an existing one?

 

 

Reaper

 

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for your message.

 

In answer to your questions, the market which we are aiming for is Design and we are wanting to pitch to small to medium size start up businesses or exsisting businesses who are wanting a new design. We are based in the Midlands and aspire to pitch to that area of the country rather than national but have felt in the dark doing research even locally.

 

Dont think I am quite ready to pitch to the dragons just yet! lol but I am wanting to put together a a good business case and to do that I am wanting to explore the market in depth with the questions raised in my earlier post.

 

I am quite experienced as a designer qualifiying myself at University and working in IT, but only doing web design as a hobby or favour to friends/family. Starting my own business has been something I have wanted to do for sometime, the desire to be responsible for my own success is what appeals to me rather than being employed by a business, i suppose it is a large ambition.

 

Thanks again for your help, hope you can provide some advice.

 

Thanks

Design only? ok, that narrows it down a fair bit.

 

 

What do you value your time at? and are you going to have an agreement with a coding company? these could make a big difference.

 

The design market is huge, to begin with, you need to start chasing it. You need to decide if you go for the big projects that pay well, or alot of smaller projects that pay slightly less per project. Both markets have their pros and cons.

 

Market value i dont know if you will ever find this, as there are so many different places for this, and alot of it is cash in hand (obviously not proper businesses)

 

For your studies, you could look at the bidding sites, they will often tell you howmany projects are posted in the last 30 days, and the value they have sold, but this is only a small crossection.

 

The main competitors, again will depend on what you value your time at. if you go for the cheaper work, on the bidding sites, it will be the companies based in india that will work for $3 an hour. If its the top of the scale, then you will be going up again agencies normally. Type "design agency XXXX" (Town name) into a search engine, and see what it says for the top 10.

 

If you want, i'd be happy to have a proper chat on skype/msn if you would rather.

 

Reaper

Hey,

 

Im more of an entrepreneur so I guess I can give you a little advice,

 

One thing that should always be your friend is a questionnaire. You need to ask the right questions in order to obtain real answers. Asking questions is important but HOW you ask them is of even greater importance.

 

When you fully realize what you would like achieve you would be able to ask short and accurate questions that would not have the interviewee asking "What does he mean by this?" or "What do I really have to put here?"

 

When you are finished formulating your questions and collecting your data, now would be the time to analyze such data. This is very crucial in seeing how much of a demand is a particular service or product is within your community or geographical location.

 

All of this information helps you determine the "demand" or "market share" of any product or service.

 

Hope this helps. Good luck