Understanding customers and trends

- Your business plan needs to spell out…the major customer and market trends…that you're going to face.…And more importantly, how you're going to react…to those trends.…What are the major trends,…do they help you, or do they hurt you?…Is the market growing, is it flat, is it shrinking?…Is the market fragmented, or is it consolidated?…And how are people behaving in that market,…are you seeing acquisitions, are you seeing divestitures?…Who makes the buying decisions…from a customer's stand point?…And are those patterns changing at all?…Think through what other products and services…do your customers want and need,…are there emerging trends where customers…are asking for new things?…Some of the sources for this information…are things like market research,…conducting focus groups,…doing some competitive analysis.…

For my business, as an example,…I run a training firm,…and during recessions one of the first things…that gets cut from the budget is training,…and that trend hurts us.…The actions that we can take when we know…