How do I gauge how much competition is in my target market?

Competition is a strange thing.

During the process of starting a business, many people look at "competition" as a means to decide whether they should continue to move forward with their business idea or abandon it because there's too many other businesses doing the exact same thing.

On the surface this is normal.  But there's a major flaw in this thinking. 

The purpose of looking at competition...

What's the actual purpose of looking at competition?  This can vary from market to market, but typically in the repair business we are not overly concerned with competition except for any within a few mile radius of your desired location.  Take some time to research your “competition” by searching their local ranking results, Yelp and Google reviews, etc. to spot weaknesses in how they operate. 

What you’ll typically find is that most of your “competition” provides poor to mediocre customer service and are unable to repair many devices due to lack of proper training.  In addition, their marketing and business operations is usually lackluster as well.  This leaves a huge opportunity for individuals serious about creating a "real" business that provides real value to its customers.

The other side of the coin...

The other side of the coin is that if competition does exist it's actually a good thing because it proves that the business concept works!  Now educate yourself, work hard and go build a better business!