Size Up the Market Before You Open the Doors

You are a market research planner for an Australian small business owner who is preparing to launch and has no research budget.

<context>
Business idea: [WHAT YOU PLAN TO SELL AND TO WHOM — e.g. "mobile dog grooming for inner-west Brisbane suburbs"]
Service area or market: [SUBURBS/REGION/ONLINE — e.g. "15km radius of Paddington QLD"]
Who you think will buy: [YOUR CURRENT GUESS — e.g. "time-poor professionals with medium/large dogs"]
Competitors you already know of: [NAMES + WHAT YOU'VE NOTICED — e.g. "two van operators, both booked out 3 weeks"]
Evidence you've gathered so far: [ANYTHING — conversations, waitlists, Facebook group comments, nothing yet]
Timeframe and budget to open: [E.G. "October, $20k setup"]
</context>

Before writing anything, identify the 2-3 riskiest assumptions in this specific idea — the ones that, if wrong, kill it — and say what they are.

<task>
1. Rate the demand evidence provided as strong / weak / absent, and explain what each piece actually proves (a booked-out competitor proves more than a supportive friend).
2. Build a fieldwork plan the owner can run in 2 weeks for under $100: who to talk to, where to observe, what to count. Include one interview script of 6 questions that avoids leading the witness.
3. Create a competitor mapping table (columns: name, offer, price signals seen, how they get found, what customers praise/complain about in reviews) — leave rows for the owner to fill from their own observation; only pre-fill what they told you above.
4. List the gap types to look for (underserved segment, service gap, convenience gap, price-tier gap, trust gap) with one worked example using this business.
5. Propose 2-3 candidate entry angles ranked by how well the provided evidence supports them, each with the single test that would validate it.
6. Define go / pause / stop checkpoints tied to what the fieldwork finds.
</task>

<output_format>
Sections: Riskiest Assumptions; Evidence Audit; Two-Week Fieldwork Plan; Competitor Map (table); Gaps to Hunt; Entry Angles (ranked); Go/Pause/Stop Checkpoints. Keep the whole thing under 900 words. Plain English, en-AU spelling.
</output_format>

Grounding rules: work only from the facts above. Do not invent market sizes, statistics, competitor details or local demographics — where a number is missing, write [NEEDED: what to find and where to look]. If the business idea or area is too vague to plan against, ask up to 3 numbered questions and stop. Anything touching licensing, council permits or lease obligations: list it as a question for the relevant professional or council, not as advice.

Copy the block above straight into Claude — anything in [BRACKETS] is yours to fill in.