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D.1 Step 1: Define your aims and set up your work schedule
Before you start with your survey, you should be very clear about your aims. The more precisely you define them, the easier the next steps will be. Additionally, you should check whether you can realistically achieve your aims. It’s a good idea to ask partners who have worked on similar projects before about their experiences of market data collection. The checklist shows the most important questions related to the definition and review of your aims.
Checklist: What do you need to consider for the definition and review of your aims?
- For what purpose do you collect the data (e.g. for a national market report)?
- Type of data: What type(s) of data (i.e. production volumes, import data, export data…) are you going to collect?
- Budget: How much money can you spend?
- Time: How much time do you have?
- People: Who can do the data collection and analysis? What networks can you rely on?
Once you have defined your aims, you should set up a work schedule. Write down the individual tasks that have to be done and who is responsible for what. Calculate how much time you need for each individual step, how you start and what you need in terms of time and money. In the course of setting your work schedule, think about potential problems that might occur. When both the aims and the work schedule are set, you can continue with secondary research. If the survey is for a fixed date publication, it is sometimes helpful to work backwards, from the planned day of publication and consider time for printing and layout (if used).