Researching your feasibility study
The State Library of Queensland has many resources that will help you gather the information you will need for your feasibility study.
The marketplace
One of the most important things you will need to find out is the market for your product or service. Is it in demand? What is the size of the market? What are the trends? Will it be in demand in the future? What's happening overseas? What are the barriers to your product being a success?
State Library resources:
This is a database of articles from Australian newspapers and journals. It can provide useful background information on the marketplace for your product/service. You can access this database on the State Library's website, or offsite using your State Library membership card or a Queensland public library account.
Use this to track down industry and market reports for Australia and overseas. Type Australia in the search box and select "Industry profile" from the Publication type box. You can access this database on the State Library's website, or offsite using your State Library membership card or a Queensland public library account.
Industry reports for Australian mining, agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors. Each report contains statistics, competitors, size of the market, trends and forecasts. You can access this database on the State Library's website, or offsite using your State Library e-services card or a Queensland public library account.
Non State Library resources:
These are produced by the Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation. They are 27-30 page documents about various industry sectors that will help you get started in setting up your business. Not all sectors are represented.
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Finding statistics (actual numbers and $ values) is one of the best ways of backing up your business idea. They will help you decide whether it is feasible or not. They will also impress any prospective financial backers. Ask us if you need help.
Other ways of gathering market information
- Phone surveys. Ring an industry association, or identify companies already in your business and give them a call. It is surprising what you can discover.
- Surveys of people on the street or in shopping centres.
- Search the internet
Competitors
Who else is doing what I want to do? Is there room for me?
Kompass International Kompass is a company directory that covers Australia and many other countries. You can search it by company name, industry grouping or geographic area. So, if you want to find out who already manufactures your product, select Australia from the country list, type the product name in the box and a list of manufacturers will appear. These are your competitors (or at least some of them).
Company 360 Similar to Kompass but covers Australia only. Only available onsite at State Library of Queensland.
FindInAustralia.com Allows smaller businesses with satisfied customers to get online exposure without spending money.
Also, don't forget to check the internet. This will identify more companies that are not in the database.
Financial benchmarks
The State Library holds a publication called Business benchmarks. This publication lists financial figures for many types of small businesses such as average costs, average revenue etc. You will find this useful when preparing your financial plan.
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