With your private label skin care offer, timing is everything. Following hot trends can deliver healthy profits, but getting to that trend before other people, can mean a windfall. Suffice to say that there is a reason so many private label entrepreneurs create unique brands frequently, always striving to be the first to strike gold with a new trend.

However, following trends is easy. Discovering the early warning signs of a trend before it balloons into a phenomenon takes considerably more difficult. If you want to stay ahead of the curve and beat your competitors to the punch, you can’t be complacent. The next great idea isn’t just going to fall out of the sky and land on your lap. Instead, you need to get out there and find it, and being vigilant with your market research is the key to that discovery.

Here are three strategies that can help guide your market research and push it in the right direction:

1.   Target New Markets

Discovering the latest trends doesn’t just mean hitting on the newest popular product. On the contrary, you can grow your business on the back of the product or products you are already selling if you continue expanding into new markets. Most businesses that sell private label products start out targeting a specific marketing segment, but that doesn’t mean you have to limit your audience forever.

As your business makes money and grows its base, look for opportunities to break into new markets. If you are selling in a brick-and-mortar setting, think about selling online. If you are selling domestically, consider taking your business overseas. If you are targeting just one demographic, think about whether your product might appeal to a wider range of people.

Of course, all this is easier said than done, but there are ways to know whether a new market offers untapped potential for your business. Look at your competitors. What are they doing? Who are their customers? Are they exploring different markets than you are? At the same time, dive into big data and look at market trend analytics. Is your market trending upward? How are businesses in your market promoting their products to customers? Answering these questions can give you huge strategic insight into what your company’s next steps should be.

2.   Anticipate Change

No one can predict the future, but you can make educated guesses about how might look. Being able to anticipate change can help you spot when markets are about to cool off or blow up. It can tell you to ramp up production for one product or to reallocate the budget from another into research and development. In short, it can help you identify current trends and capitalize on them before anyone else.

So how do you anticipate change? Keep your eyes and ears open. Follow publications and blogs that revolve around your industry. Engage with your customers on social media. Find out what problems and pain points cause people to complain. Think about ways you might be able to ease those pain points with your private label skin care products. Talk to people face to face and tease your new product, to try to get an idea of buyer enthusiasm.

Last but not least, if you sense a big change, jump on it. Being the first person to jump on a new trend is scary because nobody wants to be the fool that read the signs incorrectly. However, the best entrepreneurs use that hesitation to their advantage. If you have a pain point that many people share, a realistic solution to that pain point and a target market of interested buyers, believe that you read the signs correctly. Remember: every business that ever beat the crowd to a trend did so by taking a leap of faith. Also, make sure your private label skin care manufacturers have the ability to scale effectively when entering a new market or niche.

3.   Keep up with The Industry

The desire to be the first mover on a big new trend is what drives great entrepreneurs. With that said, you aren’t going to spot every trend before it breaks. When change does happen, don’t fight against it because you didn’t see it coming. It’s important to evolve to suit the shifting market, even if that means jumping on the bandwagon of a new trend rather than discovering it. Keeping up with the industry in this fashion will maintain your customer base and leave your brand better positioned to capitalize on the next massive thing when you are the one who discovers it.

Of course, to keep up with the industry, you should be vigilant about following activities. Monitoring analytics, reading industry research, keeping an eye on your close competitors, following publications and influencers in your industry, and listening to your customers are all things that can clue you into necessary growth and evolution. With any luck, all these same tactics will eventually be the ones that help you spot the warning signs for an as-yet undiscovered trend.