Before you sign a lease, register an LLC or write a line of code, spend a few days on your competition. It is the cheapest research you will ever do, and it changes more decisions than any other: your price, your location, your customer and sometimes whether to start at all. This guide lists the free sources available to anyone starting a business in the United States, and what to look for in each.
What you are trying to learn
- Who already serves your customer, and how well.
- What they charge, and how customers feel about the price.
- What customers complain about.
- How they win customers: location, search, referrals, sales, marketplaces.
- Whether anyone tried and failed, and why.
Search, past page one
Problem and “alternatives” queries
Review sites
Established and newest products
Launch platforms
Products too new to rank
App marketplaces
Focused add-ons on a platform
Communities
What customers recommend
Job boards
Labour as the alternative
Funding news
Well-funded newcomers
Competitors' own pages
The rivals they worry about
Online sources (any business)
- Google and Google Maps. Search the way your customer would: the problem, the service and your city. For local businesses, Maps shows every competitor nearby with ratings and hours.
- Review sites. Yelp and Google reviews for local businesses; G2 and Capterra for software; Amazon and Trustpilot for products. See how to analyze competitor reviews.
- Social media and Reddit. City subreddits and Facebook groups reveal which local businesses people recommend and avoid.
- Competitors' own websites. Services, prices, who they say they serve. The Wayback Machine shows how that changed over time.
Free US public records
| Source | What you learn |
|---|---|
| Your Secretary of State business search | Registered companies, formation dates, and ones that dissolved |
| County or city business license records | Local businesses licensed in your trade (availability varies by city) |
| USPTO trademark search | Brand names in use in your category |
| SEC EDGAR | Filings of public companies in your industry, including their risk factors and competition sections |
| Census County Business Patterns | How many businesses of your type operate in your county |
A dissolved registration in the Secretary of State search is a clue worth following: someone tried this nearby and stopped. Finding out why can save you the same mistake.
Your public library's business databases
Many US public libraries give cardholders free access to business databases that normally cost hundreds of dollars a month, such as company directories and industry reports. Ask at the reference desk or check the library website's business research page. Large city libraries often have a dedicated business librarian who will help you for free.
People who will tell you more than any database
- Potential customers: ask who they use now and what they would change.
- Suppliers: they know who is growing and who pays late.
- SCORE mentors and Small Business Development Centers: free advisers who often know the local market.
- Competitors themselves: buy from them. Nothing teaches you their business faster.
Organize what you find
Put every competitor in one table with the same columns: who they serve, price, strengths, complaints, how they get customers, and the source and date for each fact. Then write the answer to one question: which customer do they serve badly, and can you serve them better?
For a business plan, turn that table into the competition section; the business plan competitor analysis example shows the format. For a startup, see competitor analysis for startups.
Keep researching after you launch
Competitors change prices, open new locations and launch services. A quick monthly check, or automated monitoring, keeps you from learning about it from a customer who already switched; see how to monitor competitor websites.