Guide. For local business owners.

Market research for small business free sources and a weekly routine

Local market research comes down to four questions: who your customers are, how many there are near you, who else serves them, and what they pay. Each has a free answer. Here is where to find it, and a 30-minute weekly routine that keeps the picture current instead of filing it away.

🔒 Public sources only. Nobody is contacted, and your competitors never see who asked.

Free: 4 weekly briefs, no card. Arrives as a plain email. After week 4 the briefs stop unless you choose a plan; a plan sends on the days you pick, from once a week up to all 7. See your 3 competitors first, then add your email.

1. Who your customers are, and how many live nearby

  • data.census.gov, American Community Survey. Population, age, household income, home ownership and commuting, by county, city or ZIP code. Free.
  • Your own records. ZIP codes from invoices, bookings or loyalty sign-ups show where customers actually come from, which is often a smaller area than you think.
  • Google Trends. When people in your state search for your service through the year. Good for timing, not for counting.

2. Who else serves them

  • data.census.gov, County Business Patterns. How many businesses in your industry operate in your county or ZIP code, and how many people they employ. Useful for "is this area crowded?".
  • Google Maps. Search your main service from your shop and from where your customers live. The names in the top results are your real competition; see how to find your local competitors.
  • Local news, permits and your chamber. New openings usually show up here before they show up on Google.

3. What they pay, and what they get

  • Competitors' own websites, menus and price lists. The posted prices, specials and packages. For restaurants, the Menu Index shows what independents charge for common dishes in major US cities.
  • Their reviews. What customers praise and complain about tells you what the market cares about. See competitor reviews.
  • Your own pricing. Work it out from your costs first; the trade pricing calculators and the menu price calculator help.

4. Why they choose you: five questions for real customers

  1. How did you find us?
  2. What else did you consider?
  3. What nearly stopped you from choosing us?
  4. What would make you recommend us to a friend?
  5. If we couldn’t fit you in, where would you go instead?

Five short conversations with recent customers are worth more than any database. Write their words down as they say them.

Free help

Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) and SCORE chapters give free advice, and many help with local market research. Many public libraries also give card holders free access to business databases that would otherwise cost a subscription; ask at the reference desk.

A 30-minute weekly routine

  1. Competitors (15 minutes). Your top three to five: their website specials, menu or price list, Google listing and new reviews. Write down anything that changed, with the date.
  2. New openings (5 minutes). Search your main service on Google Maps for a name you don't know.
  3. Your own numbers (5 minutes). This week against the same week last year.
  4. One customer conversation (5 minutes). One of the five questions above.

Once a quarter, look again at the bigger numbers in step 1 and 2.

Step 1 of the routine is the one owners stop doing first. Our brief does it for you: it watches the competitors around you every night and emails you what changed, with where it was seen. See competitor monitoring for small business.

Common questions

How do I do market research for a small business for free?

Start with four questions: who your customers are, how many there are nearby, who else serves them, and what they pay. Census Bureau data at data.census.gov answers the first two for your county or ZIP code; your competitors' websites, menus, price lists and Google listings answer the last two; and five short conversations with real customers fill the gaps. Your local Small Business Development Center or SCORE chapter can help for free.

Where can I find free market data for my area?

data.census.gov has population, age and income by area from the American Community Survey, and the number of businesses in each industry by county and ZIP code from County Business Patterns. Google Trends shows when people search for your service through the year. Many public libraries also give card holders free access to paid business databases.

How often should a small business do market research?

Once in depth when you start or make a big decision, then a short weekly check of what competitors changed and a quarterly look at the bigger numbers. Markets change in small steps; a weekly habit catches them, a once-a-year report misses most of them.

Is talking to customers really market research?

Yes, and often the most useful kind. Five short conversations with recent customers about why they chose you, what else they considered, and what nearly stopped them will tell you more about your market than any database.

More on keeping up with competitors

Start with the competitors around you

Type your business name for a free look at who you compete with and what they changed recently: no signup, about 2 minutes.

Look up my competitors → See a sample brief