How to do my own survey or market research without paying a company to do it for me?

Question

I am starting a business, Can I just interview 100 person and say that

60% likes this and 40% likes that? Can I post it on craigslist?

Answer 1

If you join a heap of topic specific forum websites, some of them have the option to put in a poll.

Answer 2

The goal of market research is to try to help you understand your market.

Market research agencies help ensure that the survey respondents only include your target market -- e.g. consumers who have eaten an ice cream in the last 1 month or moms of babies 0-12 months old. If you want a study for example on how moms of newborns decide on the brand of baby shampoos they use, you don't want a 12 year old kid answering your survey and wasting your sample bec. the 12 year old saw your advert in Craigslist and has nothing else to do but amuse herself on a survey

But sure, you can do a market research. You can go to sites such as SurveyMonkey.com http://www.surveymonkey.com and create your survey for $19.99

But you need to think how you will distribute that research. How will you reach the audience you are trying to reach?