How to Do Market Research Before Starting a Business

Published 2026-09-23

"Market research" sounds like something that needs a budget and a spreadsheet template. Before starting a business, it can be a lot simpler than that — a short list of questions, answered honestly, before you spend real money. Here's a sensible order to work through them in.

1. Does anyone actually have this problem?

Before anything else, confirm the problem is real and reasonably common, not just something that bothered you personally once. Search forums, Reddit, and review sites for people complaining about the problem your idea solves. If nobody's talking about it, that's worth taking seriously as a warning sign, not a reason to assume you're the first to spot an opportunity.

2. Who's already solving it, even badly?

Almost every problem already has some solution, even a bad one — a workaround, a spreadsheet, a competitor nobody loves. Find them. A market with zero existing attempts to solve the problem is much rarer, and much riskier, than it sounds; it usually means the problem isn't big enough to pay for, not that you've found untapped ground.

3. What would make someone switch?

Once you know who's currently solving the problem, work out specifically what would make someone leave that solution for yours. "Better" isn't specific enough — cheaper, faster, simpler to set up, works on a platform they already use. If you can't name a concrete reason, that's worth solving before you build anything.

4. Can you actually reach these people?

A real problem with a real gap in the market still fails if you have no realistic way to reach the people who have it. Check where they already spend time online or offline, and whether you have any plausible way in — a community, a channel, an existing audience.

5. Would they actually pay, or just say they would?

People are polite in conversation and will often say a $9/month tool "sounds great" without ever intending to pay for it. Where possible, ask for something that costs them more than a nod — a waitlist signup, a small deposit, an email address. Intent that costs nothing tells you very little.

Doing steps 2 and 3 quickly

Finding who's already solving the problem and what would make someone switch is exactly what a competitor analysis answers — see how to do a competitor analysis for the full process, or describe your idea to ScoutBrief and get a structured first pass in a couple of minutes: who else is solving this problem, their pricing and positioning, and how your idea compares. First one's free.