Size of PD market?

[Smiley]

I'm putting together a business plan. What I'm seeking is an idea of just how big the PD market is annually in the USA and Canada. Specifically, I'd love to have some idea of just how many dollars get spent on workshops and seminars per annum.

Anyone have any idea where I could gather this info?

[trevord92]

Hi

You could start with looking at the turnover of established companies like Tony Robbins & Nightingale Conant - here in the UK we can get copies of accounts, so I guess that will apply to the US as well. Remember that seminars and workshops are only a small part of the market. Home study/self improvement courses are also big business.

Hope that helps a bit,

Trevor

[Smiley]

Thanks for the info, Trevor. It is specifically the seminar/workshop market that I am looking at in developing my business plan. Even though the total PD market is much bigger, it's that component I'd like to get a handle on for persons attending, dollars spent, etc.

Not sure what you mean in your advice. What do you mean by looking at the turnover of the big companies. To me, turnover usually means either the number of staff who leave a company, or a tasty pastry. And to me, accounts can mean all kinds of things, but I usually think of a recurring client as an "account". Perhaps these are UK-specific words that describe something I might be more familiar with here in Canada? Any thoughts on that?

Thanks again.

[trevord92]

Hi

The joys of a common language!

Here, (at least in financial accounts terms) turnover means the amount of income they generate, usually per year but I think in the US a lot of companies report these figures every quarter. Accounts means the numbers they file for total sales, cost of sales, etc.

You probably won't find out how much of their sales are from seminars and how much from other projects but you could do a "best guess" (which is all a business plan is anyway).

Here in the UK, Christopher Howard recently ran a free event which was attended by around 1,000 people. The event was content-filled but was also a "pitch" for his higher priced products. My guess from what I saw is that maybe between 5% and 10% of the attendees went on to spend money on at least some of his next-level seminars, which were priced in the early thousands of pounds. From what I've heard, Anthony Robbins events are bigger. From that, you could probably extrapolate to get an estimate of the overall market size.

There are also some figures on Wikipedia Self-help - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that put the market size at $8.5 billion in 2003. It's a big market!

Good luck with your business plan,

Trevor

[Smiley]

Ah Trevor! What a brilliant help you've been! I don't know how I missed the # at Wikipedia, but I did. I followed the trail that led me to Marketdata Enterprises, the producer of that particular number.

For those who might search down this thread in the future looking for similar info, I haven't bought and purchased their report yet, but I will be. Marketdata produces two different reports on the PD industry. One is an overview of about 30 pp that it sells for $60. The other is a full-blown industry analysis for around $2,000 that weighs in at a heft 321 pages. I may end up purchasing the latter, depending on whether, after finishing my business plan, I decide to move ahead. Of course, whether the first report was of any quality and value will also play a large factor in making that decision.

Marketdata also produces industry reports on a whack of other industries (dating services, drug treatment industry, etc.). You can check them out at marketdataenterprises.com.

[Smiley]

Whoops! I forgot to add the requisite, "thank you very kindly".

[trekr5]

I don't know what it's like in Canada but here in the US if you register at your local library, you will have access to public and private information databases and a lot of the information that you will buy for $2000 (the report you spoke of) can be obtained free of charge...it will only cost you time and effort

[Smiley]

Hence, the need to spend $2000. While that's a bit rich, if it is directly relevant to what I'm doing and the quality of the overview report is good, then it's probably well worth it's hefty tag. 321 pages is a LOT of searching databases. Even if I only tag my time at being worth $100 an hour, it will only take 21 hours of time invested to make the report cheaper than doing it myself. And there's no way I can produce 321 pages of relevant info in 21 hours.

[Brutha]

I think the point was that they could have the report at the libary.

[Smiley]

Ah. Missed that point.

[JerryS]

It's HUGE. Just walk into any bookstore and you'll see. Tens of millions would be underestimating it.