In this lesson, you used Google Search to conduct preliminary market and competitor research.

You then recorded your findings using Google Docs.

The insights gained through your research help you better understand your business, your potential customers, and your competition.

Your research notes are also an important first step toward developing a business plan.

By researching and learning about your target market, you shape your business plan to best enable you to reach, connect with, and sell to your target market.

By identifying your competition and their strengths, you are able to seek competitive advantages and find your business’s niche in the market.

In this lesson, you: Used keyword searches to find specific information about your business and market, Conducted market research to identify your target market, Conducted competitor research to understand your competition and how their businesses operate, And created a planning document in Google Docs to record your findings.

You used text formatting, headings, bullet points, and hyperlinks, to organize your research findings.

And you created a table to analyze your competitors’ strengths and suggest how your business will compete with them.

You can also contact a score mentor to get personalized advice and insights from experienced business professionals in your area.

The skills you practice in this lesson, as well as resources from score-dot-org, will help you as you develop and write your business plan and start your small business.