Now that you have a clear idea of your potential customers and their needs as they relate to your proposed business, you need to identify the companies that are currently meeting these needs.

A few of the areas to study are:-

  • The size of their operations, the nature and quality of their products or services they offer before, during, and after the sale.
  • The image they present and see if you can determine from their advertising where they consider their advantage to be in the market place.
  • Their strength and dependability.
  • Are they current in sensing their clients requirements and do they respond quickly and efficiently.

Now it is time to look at your offering

  • Where do you stand out and can you offer a better or alternative solution to the customers requirements?
  • There is no point in try to compete with established competitors in features where they have strength – so what features do you have that will stand out?
  • Is your product new and innovative, will it fill a void where the established competition has been unable to do so?
  • Is your product or service more cost effective – most companies now are looking to reduce overheads while ensuring quality and service are maintained. Maybe your company is leaner and therefore doesn’t carry the huge overheads some of the larger ones do. This could make your product very competitive.

Make sure you carry out a SWOT (strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats) on your business and your competition.