Marketresearch

about this book:

Few entrepreneurs love to do market research, but they need to have a basic understanding of who their customers are, why they buy what they do, and how their companies will make money. These questions formulate the bulk of the business plan that you will need to have if you want to raise funds for or attract talent to your startup.

Naeem Zafar’s new book, Market Research on a Shoestring, is a startup owner’s indispensable guide to finding answers to not only the questions all entrepreneurs must ask but also the questions they will be asked by their investors.

In this easy-to-read e-book, Zafar distills all of these questions into four simple diagrams and provides a step-by-step method for discovering their answers. It is also filled with screenshots from relevant websites that provide examples of specific questions you should be asking in order to learn what people want and where to find the target audience to ask these questions.

Written by a seasoned entrepreneur who has already advised several hundred other entrepreneurs, this nuts-and-bolts guide to market research is a necessity for those starting their own businesses.

In Market Research on a Shoestring, you will learn:

•How to conduct necessary market research for less than $100;

•The 28 questions you must ask while conducting market research without revealing your project;

•How to distill all the data relevant to your research into four simple diagrams;

•Where to find free data from trade associations in order to answer your questions about your market and its size;

•Step-by-step instructions for using tools like social media, Twitter, survey websites, and Google Adwords to learn about your target market.

•How you can access publicly available data from websites such as those of the Securities and Exchange Commission and industry associations in order to conduct successful market research.

Zafar teaches entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of California, Berkeley. He has mentored hundreds of budding entrepreneurs and helped launch numerous successful startups.

Zafar understands what entrepreneurs need to know about market research. He also knows that their time is precious. In Market Research on a Shoestring, he delivers the appropriate knowledge in practical, to-the-point language free of technical jargon and long-winded discourses.

You will return this book time after time for creative ideas and substantive guidance. It will be an investment that pays dividends over and over again!

reviews:

“An excellent book that not only enables you to develop a strategy for your market research but also provides great tips and practical advice to help you navigate through the process.”

Jemma Israyelyan, MBA student and Entrepreneur

"Naeem demonstrates that you can get first-hand market knowledge without spending a lot of time and money. After reading this book, there is no excuse for not having a clear understanding of what your customers need. This is a must-read for anyone that is seriously trying to start a new business or develop a new product"

Rodrigo Palacio, Haas MBA, enterprise architect, San Francisco, CA

“...the book was terrific. Naeem did a great job stressing the importance of market research and demonstrating how cheap and easy it can be. I thought that the step-by-step approach was great -- and particularly liked the 28 questions to ask your customer and the 'pen pal' Google campaign example.”

Gilbert Lee, Engineer, Santa Clara CA

Naeem Zafar’s, An Entrepreneur’s Fast-Start Guide to Market Research on a Shoestring, is a boon to a budding entrepreneur!Naeem has distilled his years of studied experience going through his own startup ventures and advising countless other entrepreneurs over the years into a tightly packed, illustrated handbook of ready knowledge. His perspicuous writing style and first-person narratives make it easy for a reader who is anxious to get going on their venture by not getting bogged down in arcane and abstruse marketing concepts. His direct and highly practical approach will make the most important task of vetting the viability of their venture a much more doable and fun task, virtually at no cost! Anyone interested in understanding how a venture can be made to succeed needs to read Naeem’s book. I am certainly going to recommend it to my entrepreneurial clients before they get going on their ventures!

Dilip Saraf, Career & Life Coach, Silicon Valley, CA

The book is a great resource. It serves as a road map for the aspiring entrepreneur's first step - market research! ..

Durgam Vahia, Senior Hardware Manager, Oracle Corp.