ines carried, promotional techniques, positioning, product catalogues and other handouts. If feasible, talk to customers and sales staff. Step 4 Use your research to estimate your sales on a monthly basis for your first year. The basis for your sales forecast can be the average monthly sales of a similar-sized competitor’s operations who is operating in a similar market. It is recommended that you make adjustments for this year’s predicted trend for the industry. Be sure to reduce your figures by a start-up year factor of about 50% a month for the start-up months. Consider how well your competition satisfies the needs of potential customers in your trading area. Determine how you fit in to this picture and what niche you plan to fill. Will you offer a better location, convenience, a better price, later hours, better quality, better service? Consider population and economic growth in your trading area. Using your research, make an educated guess at your market share. If possible, express this as the number of customers you can hope to attract. You may want to keep it conservative and reduce your figure by approximately 15%. Prepare sales estimates month by month. Be sure to assess how seasonal your business is and consider your start up months. Sales Forecasting for an Existing BusinessSales revenues from the same month in the previous year make a good base for predicting sales for that month in the succeeding year. For example, if the trend forecasters in the economy and the industry predict a general growth of 4% for the next year, it will be entirely acceptable for you to show each month’s projected sales at 4% higher than your actual sales the previous year. Credible forecasts can come from those who have the actual customer contact. Get the salespersons most closely associated with a particular product line, service, market or territory to give their best estimates. Experience has prove...
