Market research

This section of the website reviews the trends in around 200 different market sectors.

It is fascinating to see what market trends - and what changes in legislation - have a major impact on the ease and profitability of running a small business in that sector.

Usually, it is changes that happened long ago that are still shaping the sector.

Here are five examples.

1. Accountants have to be employed by businesses because of a long list of tax and other compliance. And we all know that the volume of legislation and the amount of compliance seems to increase inexorably year after year. Yet demand for book-keepers and accountants is not necessarily rising. That is because modern software does so much of the work automatically. So it is the nature fo the work that is changing, rather than the volume.
2. Something called the Net Book Agreement ended back in the 90s. This had allowed publishers to control the retail prices of their books, which opened the door for retailers to begin discounting books as a way of attracting customers. The effects have been felt ever since. Just as Lidl and Aldi have changed the face of the supermarket industry, The Works is a national chain of discount book shops with over 500 stores in the UK, in an era when Amazon is dominant and few independent bookshops are managing to survive.
3. Demand for childcare services has grown steadily over the last few years. Why is that? It is because there are more single-parent households, more women are having children later in life, and more women want to return to a well-established career after having a baby. In other words, more and more women are working.
4. The recruitment sector is heavily affected by the prosperity of the economy as a whole, but changes to legislation have had an impact too. One of the most important changes made restricts the circumstances under which recruiters may charge 'temp to perm' and other transfer fees when a temporary worker transfers to a hirer. Another important change saw the extension to temporary workers of many of the employment rights already enjoyed by permanent staff.
5. Some sectors are relatively new. The pet grooming sector barely existed 25 years ago. Now, the UK pet industry is a multi-billion pound business, with pet owners regularly spending large sums on pampering their animals. Meanwhile, other sectors have all but disappeared. Most of us no longer buy records, or go to the video shop, or get a car alarm installed.

NOTE: The market reviews in this section of the website were last updated in July 2019, just before Atom purchased the content from a fellow publisher. Yet the insights into how each sector operates are invaluable for anyone wanting to understand the sector for the first time.

Also see the extensive information on how to start up a business in each sector and what the legal issues are.