Information is wealth, Knowledge is power, On the day of worshipping the knowledge goddess Saraswathi, enrich your knowledge about the market.
As the saying goes “Look before you leap”, As a business leader most of the actions are proactive, but to play and succeed in the business one should know the market you get into. Keep knowing the market as you go deeper and higher in the business.
Knowing the market is not an one time exercise, it is an everyday activity of any business leader, the more you know the market the better you can play and succeed.
To many business in the Information age, entire world will be your market. To understand the market, find similar players in your locality, other localities and other parts of the world, you can find this through Google Local listings as well as other online business directories.
Also you can use Google trends – search Google trend and search with your product and service keyword to find how people all over the world searches for it.
Search the keyword and find the top results in google, also at the bottom of search results you find most used keyphrases, use them and find the similar players and competitors in the line of your business.
Search your line of business on Facebook and find groups and Facebook pages and understand how people respond to the type of business and service by seeing the likes, shares. Also you can search for Youtube videos for products and services similar to yours, and by seeing the comments, views there is some knowledge to be gained.
Small, medium organisations may not be able to invest huge money on market research but by doing some online research you will get a fair idea to strategize your plans.
Read Wikipedia to know more about your line of business, service, use Linkedin and find how other leaders perform.
Knowing the market should be in your success checklist, few minutes of daily or few hours a week to know the market using the above suggested ways makes you a knowledgeable businessman and a powerful business leader.