Victory State Bank Asks: How Do You Know Your Service Will Sell?

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Running your own business can be unnecessarily costly when mistakes are made.

For example, providing a service with the expectation of making money won’t pan out if you don’t have buyers.

Victory State Bank suggests you do your homework before committing to a product or service that may not pan out for your business.

The key is to find out in advance if your service will sell. This is true of tangible products, as well.

So, how do you know if your service is viable?

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) reminds us that there are many low-cost or free resources that can assist you in your market research. For example, many public libraries have Info-Connect services that can provide valuable information. The Department of Commerce has census data available.

The SBA offers the following tips:

You can certainly conduct their own market surveys -- both written and verbal (by telephone or mail).

You must understand your competition (their strengths and weaknesses and how their business stacks up); you must understand what your business's "added value" is -- what positively distinguishes your product or service from your competition's.

You may conduct your own informal focus groups to determine if there is a demand for your product or service and/or contact the association(s) under which your product or service falls for information on markets (many associations have departments that collect market data on an ongoing basis).

You may even choose to hire an outside market research firm, but in many cases, this is not necessary.

About Victory State Bank:

VSB Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSBN) is the one-bank holding company for Victory State Bank. As Staten Island, N.Y.’s only community-based commercial bank, Victory State Bank operates five full-service locations on the Island: The main office in the community of Great Kills, and branches in the communities of West Brighton, St. George, Dongan Hills and Rosebank. For additional information, Victory State Bank may be reached at 718-979-1100 or visited online http://www.victorystatebank.com .

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