Startup Tips - How Big is Your Potential Market?

I always get a chuckle out of the startup presentations that talk about a multi-billion dollar market potential. Inventors or entrepreneurs who think they've created a product for everyone think that their potential market is every person in the United States. Sorry. That's just not feasible.

Investors (private, angel and VC) look for entrepreneurs who have truly figured out what their relevant market is. These savvy business owners know how to narrow the market and focus on the people who are most likely to purchase their product. They narrow by behavior, demographics and geographics.

A typical woman who is over 65 is in all likelyhood not going to be looking at heavy duty razors. Those are aimed at youngish males. Youngish males are not going to be looking for skin care that makes you look younger. How about power toools? Who will be buying them? Who will be buying your new smart phone app or educational service? If you have a service business, will you start out regionally?

Once you've got the relevant market nailed down, then you need to estimate how large it is. How many people? What do they spend on similar products annually? What are the trends? To get this information, you can ask a librarian at the local public library to help you. Or you can do Internet searches, using Bing, Yahoo! and Google. There are government data, industry associations, newspaper and magazine articles, Wikipedia (but be careful with this) and company websites.

All can help you with your research.

Want help doing the research? Contact me at upstartwyn@gmail.com. I've been doing such market research for over 15 years. Read more about me at www.upstartbusinessplanning.com.

Angel Fair Coming in September

Cantor Colburn LLP
Innovation & Entrepreneurship Showcase & Awards
The Third Annual Innovation Pipeline Awards is Growing! SAVE the DATE: September 17, 2009 in New Haven.

By Liddy Karter, Program Director, Innovation Pipeline Accelerator

CTC's Cantor Colburn LLP Innovation & Entrepreneurship Showcase & Awards
featuring, Connecticut's Innovation Pipeline, FastTrack & Companies to Watch, and the Northeast Angel Summit, September 17, 2009 in New Haven

In addition to a poster fair and an awards ceremony for the Innovation Pipeline Accelerator companies from 4:00 - 7:30 PM, we are adding the Northeast Angel Summit, a whole day of activities around angel investing and seed funds, the primary source of capital for emerging companies. With over 25 angels groups and seed funds from New England, New York, and New Jersey convening for training, syndication, and new company pipeline building, if you need outside capital now or in the future, this is the place to meet.

more at:

http://ctc.ecommunique.com/web_display.asp?l=10334&d=6454&m=30366097&type=all