Marketing Plan Template

Many small business models start with a great idea. Entrepreneurs typically get great ideas from one of two places. First, they have a light bulb go off in their heads one day, the classic "Ah Ha!" moment of inspiration. "Why didn't I think of this before?" You know the moment; you've probably had them yourself. These kinds of moments gnaw at an entrepreneurs gut until they have to do something about it. It's part of the crazy DNA of an entrepreneur. Second and most common, they work with a less than desirable situation for a long time wishing it could be better until one day they decide they will make it better themselves. You work away over the years in someone else's company thinking "If this was my business, we'd do this differently." Eventually, the pressure builds up inside until you have to start your own business or explode. For entrepreneurs, those seem like the only real options.

So you have a great idea, now what?

Start by making a plan. Put down on paper a description of your product or service and start defining your business model. In other words, identify your customers, your competitors, the size of your market, suppliers and partners, and your distribution methods. You'll need to research the market in which you'll operate to understand how business is typically done and what trends are driving the future. And it's not that you can't do things differently in your business. You can and should consider how to make doing business with your company easier than doing business with your competitors. However, if you're going to reinvent the wheel, you need to understand how the market (i.e. your customers) will react to a different model. Just because your new way is better, doesn't mean it will be accepted. People can get in a comfort zone and resist change. All these questions point to one activity that is critical for new businesses: research.

There's just no way around doing your research. I write about doing research frequently. In the next post I'll give a list of helpful research tools available for hopeful entrepreneurs.

Research is the key to developing a good marketing plan. But where do you go to get the needed information? In addition to general internet research, there are plenty of good locations available to everyone for free. This is one of those areas that many hopeful small business owners would rather skip. You've been working in your industry or around your industry or as one most likely unsuccessful restaurant entrepreneur told me once told me when I asked about her industry experience, "I eat at restaurants a lot!" Unless you've constantly reading and measuring and following the industry, you'll need to do some research.

So where do you go to get your information about an industry?

I'm going to give you a list of resources; I don't have the space in a blog post to tell you how to do it. You can probably figure out that part yourself anyway.

Census Bureau: http://factfinder.census.gov/ You can also link to the American FactFinder database through my website.

Public Library: I wrote about research librarians in a recent post. Most of you didn't read it because it sounded boring. Maybe it is, but it also a huge resource.

Virtual Library: Ask your public library about access to special database collections and resources available with a virtual library card.

University Library: The business and research sections of university and community college libraries have great research tools for entrepreneurs. Just ask for help if you don't know where to start.

Chamber of Commerce: One of the main goals of a chamber of commerce is to support the creation of new businesses.

Trade Associations: Most industries have one or more trade associations to support the membership of the industry. You may have to join to get access to their information, but it's generally worth it to get that kind of data access.

Small Business Administration: www.SBA.gov/ The SBA has lots of resources for small business owners.

Paid Sources: There are plenty of paid sources for industry information available to small and big business owners. Big national companies who are in the information providing business are ready, willing and able to help you with your research needs%u2026for a fee.

In addition to these commonly used research sources, there are market testing and focus group activities to tell you specific things about a market. While these activities pay huge dividends in terms of specific preferences, you'll not typically use them in the beginning phase of research.

Do you have other resources that might be helpful for small business owners? If so, please leave a comment.