A common mistake that many excited prospective business owners make is that they produce and try to sell a product they are excited about, but they don’t bother finding out if other people are excited about the same product. The result of this approach is usually a short-lived business and a lot of frustration on the part of the business owner. The remedy is quite simple: sell what the market will buy—or, more specifically, what the people in your target market will buy.

Before you can start selling what the market will buy, you first need to find out what your potential customers are looking for. You find out the preferences, wants, and needs of your market by doing research. One type of research involves talking with people about their purchasing habits and their impressions of a certain product. If you have a specific product that you think will be successful, show it to people and ask them if they would buy it on a regular basis. If you don’t yet have an idea of what you want to sell, talk with people to see what kinds of products they want to buy but don’t yet buy because they can’t find them at a convenient location, or find out what they already buy on a regular basis.

Another type of important research involves observing a market and studying the purchasing trends of the people in the market. Careful study of a market over a period of time will indicate what products or services have generally been successful in the market, what the overall demand is for such products or services, what trends have been and are currently popular among customers in the market, and which trends are cyclical in nature and might soon return to popularity.

Trends (or fads) present a unique opportunity for business owners. The success of the business in catering to trends depends on when the business enters the market. Thus, if you want to get involved in a business that is focused on fads or trends, realize that those fads won’t last forever. Be sensitive to the importance of knowing when to get in and when to get out of the fad market. If you can get into the fad early, you can be a leader in the fad and reap a great harvest by either making a lot of profit before the fad expires or selling the business before the trend fades away.

In addition to watching for upcoming trends and fads, you should pay attention to general social and economic patterns in your town. Cultures are constantly evolving; they change as new forces and influences are introduced into the social systems. Because almost every member of a society is affected as the culture changes, you must be aware of how the cultural changes might introduce new business opportunities.