How To Know Your Market

Small businesses can now get expert insight into market research in tie-up between British Library and Yellow Pages.

Entrepreneurs and small businesses are being offered free expert advice on how to carry out essential desk research on their markets and customers, thanks to a series of special workshops being run at the British Library Business & Intellectual Property (IP) Centre (www.bl.uk/bipc) in London, sponsored by Yellow Pages.

The “Knowing Your Market” workshops are being run regularly throughout the second half of the year, following a successful pilot, and will provide SMEs with valuable insight into how best to research their specific business market.

During the two-hour sessions the Business & IP Centre’s information specialists will demonstrate the most effective ways of using the Library’s collection of published market research, business journals and high-value subscription databases, as well as showing attendees how to use internet sources available via their desktops.

The Business & IP Centre specialises in supporting SMEs from the first spark of inspiration through to eventual business launch or expansion.

Fittingly, given Yellow Pages’ sponsorship, the workshops are being held in the Centre’s “yellow” room – one of a number of colour-coded rooms.

Wendy Bridge, head of consumer development at Yell, the publisher of Yellow Pages directories, said: “Our directories are a showcase for a vast array of entrepreneurial talent throughout the UK.

“Not only do we offer predominantly small businesses a platform by which they can promote themselves through advertising, but we continually look at other ways to support them in running a successful enterprise.

"Good market research, using published information, is vital to help a business flourish, but it’s not always easy to find it, so the hands-on guidance and advice that the British Library is offering in this area is invaluable and a natural fit with the way Yell promotes UK businesses.”

Isabel Oswell, head of business marketing at the British Library, said: “You only have to watch BBC2’s Dragons’ Den to see how many entrepreneurs fall at the first hurdle because they haven’t carried out any basic market research. Yet there’s so much published information available, whether it’s free in the Centre or on the internet. In this workshop, the Centre’s information experts aim to equip people with the skills and confidence to identify and access vital published information on customers, competitors and trends.”

Details of forthcoming “Knowing Your Market” workshops at the Business & IP Centre, British Library, Euston Road, London NW1, can be obtained by visiting http://www.bl.uk/bipc/workshops.html.

Future “Knowing Your Market” workshops take place on the following dates:

4 September - 10:00am
20 September - 3:00pm
25 September - 3:00pm
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