1. Google is the easy and fast way. If you don't find anything on Google look for industry associations or industry publications. The hard way is to actually go

1. Google is the easy and fast way. If you don't find anything on Google look for industry associations or industry publications. The hard way is to actually go out and conduct a survey. 2. If there are other businesses, it is actually a good sign. Customers maybe educated about the importance of your product and they are willing to buy it. 3. A simple idea is "just to make it better". It's nothing wrong with looking on your competitor's software, asking their customers what they like and what sucks and built a better version of it. Your point with development tools and "cool" apps is important. There are a lot of industries which are neglected with great software solutions. A friend of mine works in PR consulting for dentists and he told me that many of his clients use a software for administrating their patients which is horrible, unintuitive and expensive. His other clients just use Excel. Edit: A simple method to find ideas for software is observing. Observe how people use computers. There are a lot of possibilities where a) you could improve the software or b) you could introduce new software to make their lifes easier.