There is a lot of truth to the saying that you have to spend money to make money. Many Americans dream of having their own businesses, but the majority never follow through with that dream. Why? A lack of resources and opportunities? For many, yes, but another predominant reason is…

FEAR.

They fear their investment will not pay off.

The following article is a continuation of a series. If you have not read the previous posts I recommend that you do so.

How to Conduct a Survey - Intro
How to Conduct a Survey - Survey Basics

Step One - Creating the Survey
Should you do this by yourself or hire a professional firm to help? Most should seriously consider working with a survey research firm for something so critical. A relatively small investment to make sure that your research is successful may pay for itself many times over. Only you know the exact objectives and the exact requirements, but some help with the technicalities may be worthwhile.

Since first joining the National Business Research Institute as a Marketing Analyst in May of 2007, I have been hard at work trying to learn and understand the entire survey process in order to better know how to present and promote the industry (and of course NBRI, itself).

Conducting a survey can seem like a very daunting process, but It is not as complex as you might think. Don’t take that the wrong way. Conducting a survey is a science. It follows the old computer adage, garbage in - garbage out. If you do not conduct your survey in a strictly scientific manner you can end up with a lot of useless data and wasted months of work. Worse yet, you could create action plans based on that data and do more harm than good. However, the basic structure of a survey is easily understood.

There are many costs involved in doing business. One of these costs is turnover. When employees leave the organization, they represent investments that are no longer reaping dividends.

Turnover involves separation costs including:

• the costs incurred for exit interviews, and
• administrative functions related to the employee’s exit.
  

Replacement costs include:

• the costs of attracting new applicants,
• entrance interviews, testing,
• travel/moving expenses,
• preemployment administrative expenses,
• medical exams,
• acquisition and dissemination of information, and
• training costs.