Perhaps more than anyone, startup entrepreneurs need marketing research. A couple of marketing blunders won't put a giant manufacturer out of business, but a single misstep can sink an entrepreneur with shocking ease.

The brute fact for entrepreneurs, however, is that conventional market research is expensive. Corporations can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on research efforts to divine the future for their brands and avoid wasting costly resources on wayward marketing efforts. Most entrepreneurs lack even a fraction of these resources, and the capital they do have is usually tied up in other aspects of the marketing effort.

Even if costly surveys and focus groups aren't within a company's financial reach, there are other creative, budget-friendly ways to get to know one's target audience. For entrepreneurs who have more creativity than cash, reliable-but-unaffordable techniques such as focus groups, professional surveys, and direct-mail questionnaires need not be the only options for conducting market research.

(September, 2004)