Creating a business plan may require researching specific industries, learning and gleaning information about their product, services or operations. What is the use?

Research can sound so boring and give a sense of wasting valuable time but that is far from the truth. Knowledge is gained as we sift through the information that is available to us and your brain will want to enter speeding mode which should be avoided. Retention and collecting written notes on the information you gather is the important task of the day.

Marketing research can answer questions such as which products are selling best, how competitors are performing and over all how objects (including people) or events can be observed and your own type of business approach developed. Business plans will require detailed explanations and point to sources to make marketing predictions possible.

Information can be found through a market research company for a fee, government statistics, and secondary sources of information. Researching the information for data collection will have special considerations such as ;

– Quality, is data suitable for my needs? Is the data accurate?
– Cost, collect quality data as inexpensively as possible
– Speed, time constraints may affect cost considerations

The following information reveals the top 10 profitable industries. They can also be used as a source of inspiration for business development or possible investments. A breakdown of the industries find they are in the following fields - health, finance, natural resources, transportion, technology, research and development ;

Top 10 Profitable Industries

1 - Network and other Communications Equipment , Cisco Systems, Motorola, Qualcomm, Corning, Harris, CommScope, Juniper NW, Tellabs

2 - Internet Services and Retailing, Google, Amazon.com, Liberty media, Ebay, Yahoo!, Expedia, IAC/Interactive Corp. Priceline.com

3 - Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Abbott Labs, Merck, Wyeth, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Schering-Plough, Amgen, Gilead Sciences

4 - Medical Products and Equipment, Medtronic, Baxter International, Boston Scientific, Becton Dickinson, Stryker, St Jude Medical, Zimmer Holdings, Beckman Coulter, C.R. Bard, Teleflex

5 - Railroads, Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Union Pacific, CSX, Norfolk Southern, Kansas City Southern

6 - Financial Data Services, First Data, Discover Financial Services, VISA, SunGuard Data Systems, Western Union, MasterCard, Fiserv, Fidelity National Information Services, DST Systems, Broadbridge Financial Solutions

7 - Mining, Crude-Oil Production, Occidental Petroleum, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, Anadarko Petroleum, Devon Energy, Apache, Chesapeake Energy, XTO Energy, EOG Resources, Peabody Energy, MDU Resources Group

8 - Securities, Merrill Lynch, Franklin Resources, Charles Schwab, BlackRock, NYSE Euronet, Legg Mason, Jones Financial, Nasdaq, OMX Group, Raymond James Financial, E*Trade Financial

9 - Oil and Gas Equipment Services, Haliburton, National Oilwell Varco, Baker Hughes, Smith International, Cameron International, BJ Services, FMC Technologies, Exterran Holdings, Oil States International, ENSCO International

10- Scientific, Photographic and Control Equipment, Danaher, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Eastman Kodak, Agilent Technologies, Ametek, Roper Industries, PerkinElmer, Mettler-Toledo International

Further research into the industry titles brings us to individual companies and again, if you go a step further in the research process as I have done, you will find their corporate website and learn more information. Exploring and gathering data is quite a simple process and is necessary for a quality business plan. Read related —> here and there.

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