by Fran Piggott
A common problem people encounter when writing their business plan is finding information about their business industry and competitive companies. Fortunately, in recent years the Internet has made information gathering simple and easy, but sometimes the best information is found much closer to home, with real people, in real time.
Always take a look at other businesses similar to your own, as a very good first step. If you’re looking at starting a new business, you may well be starting one similar to one you already know. If you’re doing a plan for an existing business, you are even more likely to know the business well. Even so, you can still learn a lot by looking at other similar businesses.
- Look at existing, similar businesses
If you are planning a retail shoe store, for example, spend some time looking at existing retail shoe store businesses. Park across the street and count the customers that go into the store. Note how long they stay inside, and how many come out with boxes that look like purchased shoes. You can probably even count how many pairs of shoes each customer buys. Browse the store and look at prices. Look at several stores, including the discount shoe stores and department store shoe departments. Read more... (446 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)
by Fran Piggott
Despite what you may think ….. competition is very healthy. By having competitors you are guaranteed that the marketplace still wants your product or service. Competition also helps to keep you abreast of changes and trends around you.
To keep you ahead of your competitors, you need to know everything you possibly can about them. The easiest way to see at a glance where you and your products or services fit amongst the competition is through spreadsheets.
Do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis on each competitor and a separate spreadsheet on competing products.
Summarise how their businesses are doing … are they steady? growing? dwindling? why? what clients are they targeting and attracting? Other things you may want to include in the competitor spreadsheet could be ….
- their size
- marketshare
- growth
- financial position
- available capital and resources
- image and reputation
- marketing strategy
- brand awareness or visibility
- target markets
- business development
- management structure
- technology
- location
- and any other attributes you consider important.
For the product or service analysis, you could include ….. Read more... (348 words, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)
- comparative products
- prices
