A good idea is half the battle.
But to turn your idea into a business, you need customers.
Market research can help you determine if your plans are feasible.
You map the market, find out who and where your customers are and what they want.
You will also look at how others are doing in your industry.
How do you differ from other businesses doing the same thing?
And how do you plan to sell and market your product or service?
Let's hear from these entrepreneurs how they handled it.
The digital trend at the time was very much upcoming.
So we responded to that. We looked, of course, to...
what already existed in the Netherlands? -Food and fitness was totally hot then.
And everyone had a website. -Fashion, of course.
Fashion was very hot, but travel was still minimal.
At first, you're really going to look at: How do I actually get customers in?
Over time, you see what kind of people actually enter your salon.
And then you start looking more specifically at: Okay, who can I focus on?
Where are my efforts best spent?
Most people don't have a bar table, but every house has one or more tables.
And because of that, after a few months, we also switched to dining tables.
When we started doing that, we soon noticed that there was more interest in our products.
That niche emerged later. First, we started pretty broad with travel.
And then we saw lots of lists come up with top 10 or top 20.
Lots of hot spots. Then we thought: Are we going to compete with that?
Then we decided: No, maybe we should rather highlight those more unique places.
Affordable, less crowded, more authentic.
And we just notice that people are looking for that.
People need that these days.
We have 2 strong target groups with a high demand...
and a low supply on the market. One is dark textured hair.
And we very much focused on ladies...
who wear a hijab because of their religious beliefs.
For them to be able to go to a hairdresser...
and have a bit of the pampering experience in a hair salon.
We manufacture it ourselves, but we also sell it ourselves.
And the power of that formula is, of course...
that the customer has many options in terms of customisation.
Plus we can also offer excellent prices...
because we actually removed several links from the production chain
because you can buy it directly from the manufacturer.
And now it is time for action.
Look for industry information.
Test with potential customers whether there is interest in your product or service.
Use the KVK Company Counter...
to find out which businesses offer the same products and services
and might be your competitors.
Decide how you are going to sell your product or service.
Want to know more?
Visit KVK.nl/en/starting.