Whether you are starting a business or are already in business, it is important you have the latest information about your market, clients, industry and location to help increase your chance of business success. You should consider the following questions:

• What are the trends occurring in the industry?
• Is the industry growing or is it in decline?
• What is the profile (age, sex, income, etc) of the clients in your chosen business region?
• How many competitors do you have?
• Where are your suppliers located?
• What is the economic state of the region where you plan to locate your business?

Business Resource Centre

The Department's Business Resource Centre can prepare a tailored PlanSMART Kit to assist you with answering the above questions. The kit contains up-to-date industry and market information and is individually prepared according to your business type and proposed location.

Further assistance

It may also pay to contact individual research organisations which are able to provide you with up-to-date industry and market information. These organisations are able to provide secondary information in the form of research that has been previously conducted and compiled for other purposes rather than being prepared specifically for you. This type of secondary information can be accessed easily with the major benefit being that it is not too expensive. A good example is the Australian Census (conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics) where a survey is sent to every household in Australia and the data is compiled and analysed for a variety of purposes.

In some cases, where the data does not already exist, you might need to conduct some primary research using telephone surveys, mail out surveys, interviews, product testing and focus groups. The benefit of this information is that it is relevant, accurate and tailored exactly to your needs. This type of research is often done by market research firms which can be quite costly, so you may need to undertake some simple research using your own skills or by contacting the relevant industry association.

Other assistance available from the Department includes:

• The Business Resource Centre's range of Australian business book reviews may be useful for new and existing businesses. Consider purchasing the Easy Plan CD or Think. Plan. Grow. CD business planning templates which are useful tools to assist you with establishing and operating your business venture.
  
  
• Smart Skills - short, free learning subjects and related business fact sheets to help you develop the skills and knowledge needed to plan and operate your business. Topic areas include Getting ready for business and Business planning.
  
  
• Contact your local regional centre on 13 26 50 to find out about workshops and seminars to assist you with business planning. There are also free CDs available to help with applying planning processes to key business areas - Getting ready for business and Essentials for business success. CDs are available via the Business Hotline on 1300 363 711 (interstate and international callers +61 7 3001 6359) or by email.