Source identity:

ddx:
  id: resource.sba-market-research-competitive-analysis

SBA Market Research and Competitive Analysis

Source

• URL: https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/plan-your-business/market-research-competitive-analysis
• Accessed: 2026-05-12

Summary

The U.S. Small Business Administration explains market research as a way to confirm and improve a business idea by studying customer demand, market size, economic indicators, location, saturation, and pricing. It distinguishes existing data sources from direct customer research and recommends competitive analysis to identify market position, entry barriers, strengths, weaknesses, and indirect competitors.

Relevant Findings

• Market sizing should be grounded in customer demand and reachable market, not only broad industry totals.
• Existing data sources are useful for general, quantifiable questions.
• Direct research is better for customer-specific questions such as reactions, buying behavior, and unmet needs.
• Competitive analysis should cover market share, strengths, weaknesses, entry windows, barriers, and secondary competitors.
• Pricing analysis belongs with market research because willingness to pay affects obtainable revenue.

HELIX Usage

This resource informs Business Case and Competitive Analysis artifacts. HELIX uses it to keep market sizing tied to evidence quality, target reachability, pricing assumptions, and competitive constraints.

Authority Boundary

This resource does not provide project-specific market numbers. It defines the questions and evidence types that a project must answer with its own research, customer discovery, and cited data sources.