Start-Up Businesses Being an entrepreneur in a small and young market like Oman is not easy. It is difficult to launch a new product with only some 3 million citizens as your potential clients, launching a new product without thoroughly studying the market needs is not a good idea. An Omani entrepreneur Qais Al-Khonji admits that he failed at his first startup because he did not research the market’s needs, and did not follow a lean methodology. But Al-Khonji has embraced his failure, and moved on to his next projects. “I try and learn even though this means losing. I consider the benefits to be in learning and failure a step towards success,” he says. He's started five startups in the past three years, and he's embraced failure with most of them, closing down four. But business is what he loves, and he's ready to get back up and do it again. “I want to be my own boss and work at what I love doing,” he admitted. Al-Khonji worked in banking for many years and in 2010, he decided to throw himself into entrepreneurship, starting by launching his first company, Qais United Agency, which imported and sold Chinese water filtration systems in the Omani market. After 18 months, in mid-2011, Al-Khonji closed it down because it didn't get the traction he was hoping for. Then, in early 2012, he launched 4 startups at once, offering services in very different sectors, including education, health tourism, an electrical freezing technology, and digital meters for water and electricity. Three of them failed, he says, again because they didn't succeed quickly enough, and he wasn't motivated to stick it out. Now, he is focusing on his digital meter company, hoping to build it into a “long term business," he says. "It will take some time to pick up and make revenue.” He's also working as a reseller for Thermax, an Indian engineering solutions company in Oman, and is in the process of launching solar energy products. Answer the following: 3. Assume you are a business consultant to Qais Al Khonji and suggest any 4 market research methods to him.