Launching a business can be an exciting and rewarding endeavor. But passion and vision are not enough. You also need the right tools and strategies to get your business off the ground and turn it into a lasting success.

Today, we’re interviewing author and entrepreneur Jenn Aubert for her tips on starting a business and researching your market. Her first book Women Entrepreneur Revolution: Ready! Set! Launch! explores the mindset, motivation, and behaviors of successful female entrepreneurs. She is also the co-founder and CEO of LearnSavvy, an online education marketplace and community for women business owners. Read the Q&A below to learn Jenn's practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

If you are currently working as a market research analyst or aspire to be one someday, there’s good news. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job outlook for market research analysts is expected to grow 19 percent over the next 10 years, which is much faster than the average for all occupations.

MarketResearch.com is proud to be the leading provider of business intelligence, offering users access to information about hundreds of industries worldwide. In addition to market reports, MarketResearch.com offers a variety of free downloadable white papers, eBooks, and slideshares that provide insights into current industry trends.

Businesses face new opportunities and challenges as different trends emerge. Decision makers need to be aware of how all these developments will affect their organization and be flexible enough to alter their strategy to meet evolving technological standards and consumer preferences.

Our white papers and eBooks explain important new trends to help you stay ahead of the competition. Below is a list of five of our latest white papers and eBooks.

Differentiation is providing superior value to customers at a profitable price. If we look at the fundamental equation of business (Figure 1), differentiation may be thought of as increasing value through some combination of more or better benefits or a reduced price. Benefits include product and service performance, but also include availability, image, relationship, and many other performance attributes. Price includes the price charged for the product and service, but also includes terms, total cost in use, paperwork required to complete and track the exchange, and other attributes. Any decrease in price attributes or increase in benefits will increase value.

Unlike most B2C marketers, many B2B companies invest little or no resources (both time and money) in understanding brand awareness, but Harvard Business School Marketing Professor John Quelch challenges this position. His reasons:

• Most B2B marketers cannot economically address thousands of small businesses using the traditional direct sales force.
• If left unattended, individual managers will each do their own ad hoc marketing.
• B2B marketers are realizing that developing brand awareness among their customers' customers can capture a larger share of channel margins and build loyalty that can protect them against lower-priced competitors.

To provide direction and guidance for market research initiatives for the coming year, Unity Marketing recently conducted a year-end user needs survey across its client base. With over 100 respondents, primarily C-suite and marketing executives, as well as entrepreneurs, the survey included a number of questions that weren’t specific to Unity Marketing. Rather, the results reveal the most pressing concerns for businesses of all types, especially those aiming at the affluent consumer segment — the top 20 percent based upon income. Here is what we discovered.

Lucinda Lawson, a one-time university professor, was 48 when she became the owner of the Clifton Wine Shop & Tasting Room in Clifton, Virginia, three years ago. She’s among the many baby boomers and gen Xers who are switching gears and turning to entrepreneurship in the second halves of their lives.

The percentage of entrepreneurs ages 55 to 64 grew from 14 percent in 1996 to 23 percent in 2013, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The savviest of these late-blooming entrepreneurs know better than to rely on hunches when evaluating whether to move forward with a prospective business.

What trends should market researchers expect in 2016? To find out, we asked a variety of executives and thought leaders to share their predictions for the coming year. Our sources include industry veterans at established firms, as well as a number of innovative entrepreneurs.

These respondents cited a range of influential factors including the role of mobile devices, big data, and social analytics in understanding consumer behavior. New technological developments could help market researchers unlock real-time data and answer strategic business questions more quickly and accurately. To find out more about these trends, check out the series of quotes below. 

If marketers take a close look at their company website data, they will gain valuable insights to make those websites generate more sales leads and e-commerce revenue. In addition, the same data can improve lead and revenue production beyond the website — provided the data is shared throughout the organization, rather than confined to the website development team and Internet marketing analysts, as it often is. In this article, we’ll look at:

• Important data to review
• Important data gaps that must be filled
• How to use the data to improve lead and revenue production

In a world where knowledge is power, what you don't know can hurt you. The good news: It's not so hard to find out what your rivals are up to. Competitive intelligence can drive your strategy, calm your fears about the future, and give your company a competitive edge. Competitive intelligence uses many of the same techniques as market research but deploys them to answer highly targeted and specific questions, rather than to gain insight into broad market trends.