Market Research Made Easy

Web tool helps small businesses size up competition find new customers

A new web-based tool from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) helps businesses identify new customers and compare their own performance against that of other businesses in their industry, using data collected from hundreds of private and public sources.

“Market research and analysis is critical for the success of any small business owner or entrepreneur,” says SBA Administrator Karen Mills.

SizeUp works by analyzing a business in comparison to similar businesses and provides geographic information on the marketplace, areas recommended for advertising, and prospective customers. It delivers market data directly to business owners to help them make better business decisions based on competitive research analysis.

SizeUp:

• Benchmarks a business by comparing its performance to that of all other competitors in the same industry
• Locates customers and suppliers through a mapping feature
• Finds the best places to advertise by choosing from preset reports (or creating custom demographic reports) to find areas with the highest industry revenue and the most underserved markets

GIS Planning Inc., the company that created SizeUp, has licensed the tool to the SBA for one year.