Market research

2 aspects:

• Top down: from the Gartners and the Forrester of the world, it is possible to get estimate numbers of what the market is for your business. However, this should not be used as is to come up with revenue forecast, getting 2% of a large market does not mean anything and only shows that you have not done your homework.
• Bottom up: This is a best way to calculate your real market: how many people can you reach, today and in the coming years, how much would they spend on your product or services - this is your addressable market. And then for each market, there is a good chance that there will be 3 top players, so you could reasonably hope to get 30% of this addressable market.

Go to Market

In this area, and if you are a start-up, it is important to think of how you can piggy back on other resources:

• a distributor that already does similar things but is not a direct competitor
• other companies that could benefit from the added value that you bring to serve their customers better

Other thoughts

An interesting approach to marketing your product or services: Pinkomarketing