Welcome to the “Preneur” 12-Part Marketing Series. This is the 2nd post out of 12.

In today’s world, there is no excuse for not doing your research before implementing your plan. With three major search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing) at your disposal, you can learn anything. Type in what you want to know. Figure out what to do before you start. There is an abundance of  free sources – Webinars, YouTube “how to” lessons, white pages, ebooks, etc. Then, there is a whole other universe for paid information (classes, books at the bookstore, on-line books, pdfs of information, on and on…

Things you want to research:

• Competition
• Subject Matter about your product or service
• Websites available
• Names of other companies, products, etc.
• Avenues to promote your business
• Publications for visibility
• Local, city, state, country information
• Sources of education
• Leaders in your field
• Decision-makers for purchasing your product/service
• Demographics – What your client/customer looks like and where they are?
• Networking sources
• Accreditation or degree sources
• Professional organizations
• Packaging information/sources
• Partnering sources
• Business types
• Taxation information
• Printing sources
• Insurance

This step is not a one time occurence. You will want to continue your research on a regular basis to see what the trends, changes, new software, visibility means, etc. Preneurs need to have a lot of drive and endurance to keep moving forward. No one said being a Preneur was going to be easy.

Next is Part 3 is about COMMUNICATION.