For a small, local home based business, your first stop should be your county planning department or the main  branch of your local library.  Either entity should have the most up to date information possible on the composition of your population, the demographics, the planned developments, etc.  Most planning departments publish a whole book every 2-3 years with more information than you can possibly use.  Most public libraries will have it, but even if you have to put out a few dollars to buy a copy, it will be money well spent.  This is information you just can't get any other way.

Google Insights has become a major marketing tool I use in determining marketing and advertising trends as well as deciphering significant opportunities based on seasonality, keywords, competitor analysis, and locations. Google Insights is a Must-Use tool for online marketing research. You can also check the competition in Google's Keyword Tool.

You obviously want off line market analysis - most people here have spammed you about online. it is true that online research can give you a very rough idea of online demand - because not everyone searching online is wanting to buy product - but your requirements are a lot more specific. Assuming you are selling exclusively from a specific geographic location you need to have an idea of what area of the city you are looking at servicing. People call this the CATCHMENT AREA. Without specifics about your business, the more niche it is, the more detailed research you need. You say it is a home based service - something like child care? Well first you should look at what other direct competitors service your area. See the geographic proximity to you and the fees they charge. How do they structure their business and is it successful. Could you emulate it or provide a niche they dont service? If you dont have any competitors, it could be because there is little demand. To check demand you coud put in keywords associated with your service (into a search engin), including your local area zand see what online competiors there are. Yellow pages or other directories will also give you an idea. You can also get the number of visitors to these websites, because if they are local, that might give you a litle demand info. A good starting point for demand is to know who your likely customers are and look at cencus bureau statistics. Narrow your search down to the specific areas of your catchement area (the full distance you expect people may travel to see you) and have a look at if these people fit the profile of what you expect your customers to be. Are they the right age, sex and income? Other research companies might be able to provide psychographic info. It is always a good idea to have a website as well as an off line business, and if you set up a simple one, you can always run google adwords going to a survey page that rewards people for providing you info on your proopsed business idea. It all comes down to market research and how much you want to spend before you go into action.  GOOD LUCK!

Is your business idea totally new or is the product/service being provided in other areas? Google insights would help, I would even try google's keyword tool. You could search for your keyword (you business idea) and see how many local searches are being made for it.

Hi there, You got great suggestions from your previous commentors. Yet, I would also like to add or suggest that first, you need to check the demand of the service that you wish to cater. Check on google if the rate of demand is high or not particularly on your area. There you can see which areas are with high or low demand. Second, check your competitors. See what other services do they have. Everything you want to know, you can search it in google. You will learn more entrepreneurial ideas and passive income ideas that will help develop and grow your business.

My marketing guys have told me the best way to check (just from an online perspective) is to go to Google and checkout their keyword tool. See if there is any potential search volume for the big list of core keywords for your industry...then add a geographic search modifier at the end to verify if there are any queries online for your neck of the woods. Of course in the offline/traditional space you would have to do some different market research. The local market is a tougher nut to crack than some think.

Here are My suggestions : 1. Make a list of all you neighbors friends and Family !(Prioritize them by the most friendly to less friendly). 2. Sit down and write about 10 possible questions about your business. Make sure when writing the questions, you will be able to extract some important information. 3. Ask there openly what do they think about the your idea. 4. write down their opinion. 5. Write down all their points of view and pay attention to the ones that you missed when you built your idea in your head. Denver Electricians -- This post was edited to remove a hyperlink. For posting guidelines, see the Community Best Practices: http://community.sba.gov/community/discussion-boards/introduction/welcom....

You may want to make an appointment with a counselor at a small business development center or a SCORE office in your area. They can suggest ways to research your local market and they may have people who will help with the research.

Google insights would be a start. You should also use google's free keyword tool. You can google it as googles external keyword tool. You can then do localized searches on the keywords that would be directly targeted to your business. You are primarily looking for 2,000 or more searches. Hope that helps some.