Research research

We've tried to do our own market research, simply to cut costs. The experts say that a surprisingly small number of answers will provide a good reflection of the market's opinion in general. Apparently the General Election opinion polls are carried out with just 1000 people and they are usually pretty accurate.

We've managed to get a good response from Luke's nursery, and are now really trying to get into a primary school, to get them to allow us to research their parents. We've made it as easy as possible for the school. We'll print the questionnaires, which are only one sheet of A4. We will drop them off and pick them up, and they include a disclaimer for the school - they can't be seen to be recommending our business. But so far, we haven't had any luck. Ross is following up the schools who haven't replied yet, and I'm holding out that the school that both Ross and I went to will agree to it.

We've also approached some celebrities and are absolutely delighted that Kym Marsh (Hearsay, Loose Women, mum to 2 young children) has given us a comment and allowed us to use her name, and she hasn't charged a fee! We've put the comment on our site and our holding page, and we'll add some comments we've had from other parents too. Testimonials are so important I think to give us credibility.

Technology is moving on apace isn't it? We are already looking at the next phase of our business (way before we even launch!) to take advantage of the mobile technology developments, and the audio visual products such as podcasts. Did I say I wanted a business that didn't need updating regularly? I think all businesses have to be impacted by some changes in the wider world, and you've got to constantly look to the future, or you'll be left behind. But we need to focus on our current business aswell, to make sure we launch with a really good quality product.

So it's all about research at the moment - market research from potential customers, researching the future technologies, aswell as the tons of research we are doing for loads of different technical things like the wording of our editorial copy, software to do certain searches on the site, and the payment processing facilities from providers like Worldpay.

And then there's the research for the content of the site. Because when I first set out with this business, I thought I'd have more than enough ideas myself to fill the site, but after really scrutinising our categories, I've found that I should put a lot more for certain age groups and certain activities. So I'm off to do some more of that now.

Well, that's after I've picked up Gregg's car and paid for a new clutch, because it decided to break down on the M62 on Saturday! And Gregg's at work of course. Good eh?

Kirsty