How to Start a Survey Business

Starting a survey business can be a very potentially profitable business. While millions of people around the world take surveys for both free and for money, starting a survey business can be a great way to make money with little start-up investment! However, the two most crucial factors for the survey business success is time-management and communication. So, if you are tired of taking surveys to make money, then this is a great solution!

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer
• Internet
• Email account (to register on social networks)
• Website
• Web designer

1. Create a list of all possible services and products that the survey business would do. For example, you can do internet, phone, mail, and in-person surveys.

2. Register your business through the Small business Administration (see link below). Decide which business structure (corporation, sole proprietorship, or partnership) is best suited for you and your business. You will need to register a Sales Tax ID and a Federal Employer ID number.

3. Acquire free or cheap surveying software (see links below). This software will be the tool that you will use to make your surveys.

4. Register your business through the Small business Administration (see link below).

5. Create a website, which will be the center of your survey business. Create the website by going to godaddy.com and choosing a .com domain name, such as surveybusiness.com. As well, you will need to purchase a hosting plan in order to have your site operable.

6. Draw up some ideas for how you want the website to look like, with paper and pencil or a computer program (such as Paint).

7. Hire a web design/builder to build the website for you. Make sure that you communicate your ideas to the professional in order to execute a website that looks the way you want it.

8. Create a marketing plan, form which will serve as a guide for how you will market your survey business.

9. Create profiles on various social networks, such as Facebook, Myspace, etc. On the profiles, put links to your business' website, as well as put your survey business' services, products, and pricing for them within the profile. This is a free, easy

10. Create a blog for free, with Wordpress or Blogger. Utilize the blog to help give day-to-day newsletter-type feeds to your customers and friends. This will help keep your communication efficient.

11. Contact businesses both local and through the internet to create some contracts in which they can use your survey service and products.

12. Offer two types of services to the potential business client: prefabricated surveys, and customized surveys. Prefabricated surveys are ones that are already created, using popular topics that are of interest to businesses. Customized surveys are surveys that contain information that meets to the client's specifications.

13. Keep marketing the survey business until you exhaust all of your working hours and manpower.

Tips & Warnings

• You can purchase domain names that are not '.com', such as .net or .info, however .com are the best for search engine results and the overall value of the domain name.
• There are ways to get a host for free through your email service, but actually purchasing a hosting plan is a more secure investment.
• If you are knowledgeable in web design and overall website building, then you can do it yourself, but having a professional work on it will be a much wiser decision.
• You could run the survey business just form a free blog, but it will be difficult to much on it.
• Do not do anything before you create your business and survey materials. If you build a website and begin to market yourself before you actually have any products or services, then your business will not succeed!
• Remember to register and update all information about your business, especially your revenue and costs. You can get into legality issues if you do not!

Resources

• QuestionPro, a free survey tool site
• Information to help register yoru business
• IRS info on starting a business

[nightshift]

on 3/11/2009 Great article. Very thorough. 5*

[mbravo1020]

on 1/4/2009 good article I been thinking about doing this

[MyJB]

on 1/2/2009 Good article.