CONNECTING MARKET SIZING TO BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE RESOURCES Terence O’Neill, Michigan State University Alyson Vaaler, Texas A&M University

Learning Objectives Incorporate quality secondary sources into decision making processes Practice critically engaging with information sources, both primary and secondary Incorporate both types of sources into useful market sizing process Information creation as a process Searching as strategic exploration

Why Market Sizing is important “Estimating market size helps determine whether the payoff from your new venture is worth the toil, sweat and tears, or whether you’re about to do your first pivot.” - Steve Blank and Bob Dorf

Ways small businesses fail •The math doesn’t work: not enough demand •Ownership •Over-expansion •Poor accounting •Lack of cash cushion •Operational mediocrity •Operational inefficiencies •Dysfunctional management •Lack of a succession plan •A declining market –Goltz, Jay. “Top 10 Reasons Small Businesses Fail.” New York Times, January 5, 2011.

Example: Dog Walking Service Question: What is the market for dog walking services in College Station? Total Available Market (TAM)= All HH in College Station w/ a dog X Yearly Cost of Dog Walking Services per HH Yearly Cost of Dog Walking Services per Household = $3,120 $20 per walk, each household X 3 times a week = $60 a week, 52 weeks a year Still Need: All HH in College Station w/ a Dog Spoiler alert, not everything can be found, sometimes you have to make assumptions, these can guide the kinds of questions that you ask during customer surveys

-purpose of using broad industry data -IBIS is one example, there are many others -Industry reports might not directly correlate with what the student is looking for, encourage them to think broadly at this point. Convenient that there is a “Dog Walking” industry report, but a “Pet Services” or even “Pet Ownership” industry report might have valuable information in it about dog walking -In this example I point them towards a very specific percentage with the intent of having them mine that information for localized usage

-localized data on populations, as well as education, income, etc., -a step towards taking the broad percentage data that they found in IBIS and applying it on the local population (36% of 36,175 gives you roughly the number of households in BCS that have a dog) -most comes from the Census, but this is easier to read -I emphasize that students should pay attention to where the data comes from that they’re looking at, this will help them determine the reliability of the data

Develop customer development questionnaire based on market information From interview materials, begin developing personas for Target Market Use psychographic and market research materials to better understand Target Market

Questions for you How would this exercise be useful for you? How could it be more useful?

Thank you Alyson Vaaler Business Librarian, Texas A&M University Libraries asvaaler@librar.tamu.edu Terence O’Neill Head of Makerspace and Digital Scholarship Services, Michigan State University Libraries oneillt@msu.edu