Research, Research, Research!!! Why your business needs it (6)
The day an entrepreneur stops doing research, his or her business has started dying. It is just a matter of time before the business disappears from the marketplace. The reason is obvious. He will become ignorant of what is happening within his market space and one thing will lead to another and he will discover that no one is coming to patronize him or buy anything from him again.
Maybe you are seeing demand going down in your business and you were thinking some unseen forces are behind the malaise. Maybe they are coming to even buy and thereafter you are not seeing repeat-purchase from the same people. They may even rush you, I mean suddenly you see the whole community line-up at the door of your shop to buy from you.
Don’t think they rushed you because fortune has smiled on you. It may because you are too far from what is happening in the market and your price is too low and people are rushing you to take advantage of you. I had an experience of this when I was working in a financial institution and I was managing the project department of the organization.
We had a joint venture with another organization which involved importation of printing paper. One day, we saw a huge crowd of people waiting to buy. I was initially delighted. By the next day, the business training I had back in school just took the better part of me and I announced a price increase.
The crowd kept coming. We were increasing prices every day and the crowd did not stop. This must have meant that our price that we fixed at the beginning was extremely too low. We didn’t do any price survey. We had fixed the selling price based on our projections when we were planning the transaction. Sensible business people know that price is never the same for too long in most markets. We were just in our air-conditioned office trying to act as business people.
It is common knowledge that even if you are selling a product at a comfortable price with comfortable profit being envisaged, you may be shooting yourself in the leg because if the price of the same product goes up astronomically you may not be able to restock, that is buy as many units of the product you had before.
Thank God that we used street sense to just continue increasing the price of that product. The customers would have rushed us and we would be thinking that we had a wonderful time. But the replacement value of what we sold must have been staggering and at the end of the day it would have resulted into a big loss.
Research helps you to be in perfect awareness of what the market is saying per time and since business battles are fought and won on the basis of who has superior information, you will be better off at the end of the day if you have good and up-to-date market information. Somebody said if you think education is expensive, try ignorance. Research is educating yourself on a continuous basis on market dynamics so that you will not be at the losing end when tomorrow comes. Actually, research is not expensive at all. It is the simple process of asking real people out there, particularly people who have identified that they need what you have to sell and have the corresponding ability to pay for it.
Kola Owolabi,Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants, is the CEO of David Richard Associates based in Igbesa, a surburb of greater Lagos, near Crawford University. The organization has had the opportunity to execute landmark business development (business plan preparation and conduct of feasibility studies) and rmarket research briefs for organizations both within and outside Nigeria. He can be reached by phone or WhatsApp through 08023203198.
Siaka Momoh,
Publisher/editor, enterprisethrob.com;
ex-Industry Editor/Member, Editorial Board,
BusinessDay, Lagos
Cell: +2348061396410,+2348023033988.
E-mail: isaacmomoh717@gmail.com