|
|
|
|
The purpose of a quick market test (QMT) is to gather sufficient external, market-based data to enable you to make a quick judgment on whether to continue to pursue or drop a given earned income business idea. You can do this by talking to potential customers and to those who know something about them, by evaluating your organization's capabilities, and by spending time at the library or at your computer. Another name for a quick market test is a preliminary feasibility test. A typical QMT takes about twenty hours of staff time, spread out across several weeks to allow enough time to collect data and conduct interviews. The "next steps" following completion of a QMT can be to proceed to a full feasibility study, to go back and gather more data, or to completely drop the idea. In some cases, where startup costs and risks are very low, it may be possible upon completion of the QMT to proceed directly to developing a simple plan to actually start up the business venture. In most cases, however, a full feasibility study will be warranted. You can download the three worksheets used for the Quick Market Test. Those worksheets are: * Quick Market Test Twenty Questions These worksheets are excerpted, with permission, from Venture Forth! The Essential Guide to Starting A Moneymaking Business in Your Nonprofit Organization, by Rolfe Larson (Copyright 2002 Amherst H. Wilder Foundation). Completed examples of these and all other worksheets appear in the above book. For more information on Wilder Foundation Publications, visit www.wilder.org/pubs or call 1-800-274-6024. |
|
© 2006 Rolfe Larson Associates -
www.RolfeLarson.com -
Rolfe@RolfeLarson.com |
