Business Research Process

Business Research Methods

Businesses need to do research to ensure that their products are changing or improving to compete with competitors and to keep their customers happy. This leads to either someone in the company asking questions or hiring a firm that deals directly with finding the answers. Research follows down many paths. It can be time consuming trying to discover the answers that will keep a company in the black.

The first thing to do is to define the question. What is it that the company needs to know more about? Where is the company maybe faltering or experiencing declining sales? This is where someone would start their research. Deciding what questions need to be asked to get the requested information.

The next step would be to put together a proposal for the executive board of the company to look over. After they have examined the proposal they will either accept it, ask for more information, or reject it. Many times a rejection is more about the money involved in the research not the research request itself. However if a change is needed and researching the new trends is the best way to make that change, the Board will accept the proposal.

Once the proposal is accepted it is time to put the plan into place. Obtain the information needed by whatever way was put in the proposal. Make sure the research is correct to the best of your ability. Compile the data and process it into a manageable size. Once you have interpreted all the gathered information it is time to write the report. After the report has been fine-tuned it can be reported to the manager for evaluation. He will then take it to the board.