After you determine the primary markets you’ll target with your plan, you’ll want to learn all you can about them and summarize salient points about each one. Here’s a list of good sources of secondary research—most of which are yours for free—followed by suggestions for low-cost primary research.

• The Internet, especially government sites. The Census Bureau, for example, is an excellent source of demographic information for specific market areas.

• Your handy local business or reference librarian.

• The local chamber of commerce and Better Business Bureau.

• Trade publications, business journals and trade associations. A librarian can help you locate those most appropriate to your industry.

• The marketing department at your local college. Students and staff may already have researched area businesses—and may be able to help when you’re ready to conduct primary research.

• Regional planning organizations and local governments. These entities are great sources of demographic information. Don’t forget the Business Information Centers at area SBA offices.

• Ad salespeople at TV and radio stations, newspapers and magazines. They have firm data on the demographics of their own customers, and you can use the information when you’re determining where to buy advertising.

Once you’ve gleaned all you can from secondary sources, you may decide to conduct research of your own. You could hire a research or marketing firm to do it for you, but you can also gather quite a bit of helpful data on the cheap.

• Talk to local marketing professors about enlisting students’ help in conducting basic surveys.

• Develop a questionnaire to be answered by current and/or potential customers. Distribute it by mail or in your shop, and encourage people to return the questionnaire by offering a prize drawing. Pre-test the questionnaire with a few good customers or friends to see whether it will gather the information you need.

• Conduct one-on-one interviews with current or potential customers to find out what they think of your products and services and whether they’re aware of their benefits. How could you make your offerings more valuable?

• Hold focus groups—group discussions of six to 12 people, led by a moderator who follows a script of questions and discussion points. Such meetings usually last one or two hours and are videotaped or audio-taped.