So I got some email from folks who read my article on Business Preparation who wanted to know how to use the resources I posted. Before I get into that, I want let you know that there is a saying in the legal profession "Great lawyers never ask a question without knowing the answer ahead of time." You should not create a business until you know the end result. We call this the Research Phase - this is the strategy for successful business management.

This section is entirely different from the study or preparation phase. This is the phase where you do the legwork and check the market, the competition, and the trends in your market. The prep work is the collection of the information resources that is needed for the research.

Let's say you want to sell a hair restoration product online. You first want to know if people are looking for the product online. Let's do a Google search. The keyword "hair replacement products" has at this writing, on Google, 614,000 searches. There are 56 (as of this writing) PPC sponsored links on Google for hair replacement products.

Let's see who has the top website for this listing at this time. Transitions International Group is number one at this time. Their website is "iwanthair". The organic listing for this heading is a mixture of products, reviews, free information and blogs. Let's get some market details from Dunn and Bradstreet and The American Hair Loss Council -

70 million men and women are affected by hair loss in the U.S.

By the time adults reach age 50, half of all men are bald or almost.

The Baby Boomers will rapidly increase the averages for the next 20 years.

Hair loss can seriously affect an adult's self image.

An estimated 2,000 clinics specialize in hair replacement systems while thousands more are marketing some form of hair replacement. Thousands of plastic surgeons, dermatologists and surgeons are taking part in this industry.

The two largest national hair replacement chains are Hair Club for Men with approximately 90 locations and HRS (Hair Replacement Systems) with approximately 55 locations.

Annual retail spending for hair restoration 1.08 billion

Hair Transplant Surgery expenditure = $568 million - 52.8%

The retail/online purchase of topical cream/medications equal $200 million - (18.5%)

Hair additions/hair systems = $309 Million - (28.7%)

The average age of a potential client is 45.

The programs are painless.

The programs are relatively affordable to many.

The results are immediate or very quick.

Technology has shown the results to be natural.

The process is available for males and females.

Topical products are coming online that treats the issue in the privacy of your home.

Almost all baldness is hereditary. This means there a lot of people who will have to deal with this problem.

Average price for products or treatments-

Hair transplant surgery per treatment (most treatments = two sessions) $7,000-$12,000 per session. Topical treatments range from $25.00 to $50.00 a month.

Hair replacement system costs - $750.00 to $2,500

Monthly styling and adjusting (after initial hair system is in place). $75 to $500.00 per month.

This background research allows a pretty comprehensive knowledge the industry.

Now we have to figure out what is available online in the way of affiliate products. We need to see what our competition is doing and what is selling. We also need to see how well it's selling. We found that there is a herbal product on Clickbank that is at the top of the list for hair restoration that sells for $35.00. We can now set up a test.

There are more studies that could be done on a product like this but I think you get the idea. We could run a trend analysis to see what the best time would be to roll out a product of this type and who exactly buys this kind of product.

The value in this kind of preparation will be seen more fully in my next installment dealing with the Product Planning Phase. If you can't wait, go ahead and contact me and I'll help you set up your own product prep.