How to Identify Your Competitors

Published 2026-09-23

"I don't think I have any real competitors" is one of the most common things people say when they start looking into this — and it's almost always wrong. It usually means they've only looked for businesses that look identical to theirs, and stopped when nothing turned up. Competitors are just anyone your customer might choose instead of you, and that net is wider than it first looks.

Start with what your customer is actually trying to solve

Instead of searching for "businesses like mine," start from the problem your customer has. A meal-kit service isn't just competing with other meal-kit services — it's competing with grocery delivery apps, restaurant takeout, and meal-prep subscriptions, because all of them solve "I don't want to cook tonight." Write down the problem in one sentence, then ask what else solves it.

Search the way your customer searches

Google the terms an actual customer would type when looking for a solution — not your business name, not your category label, but the plain-language version of their problem. The businesses that show up in ads and the top few organic results are actively competing for that exact customer's attention, whether or not they'd describe themselves as "in your industry."

Ask where the money is currently going

If you have any customers already, ask a few directly: "what were you using before this, or what did you consider instead?" Their answer is often not what you'd have guessed, and it's the most reliable signal you'll get, since it's not a guess — it's what actually happened.

Don't forget the default alternative

For a lot of small businesses, the real competitor is "doing it yourself" or "doing nothing." A house-cleaning service competes with the customer just cleaning their own house. That's worth naming explicitly, because it changes what you're actually selling — convenience and time, not just a cleaner house.

Once you have a list

Five to eight names across direct, indirect, and the default alternative is usually enough to work with — see how to do a competitor analysis for a small business for what to do with the list once you have it. Or skip straight to it: describe your business to ScoutBrief and it'll suggest a competitor list for you, pulled from live search rather than a guess, first report free.