Know Your Competition

Know your competitors and make your business better!

Every business is in competition. Even if you’re the only business of your type in your area, you face competition with consumers choosing to spend their money elsewhere. By knowing who your competitors are, you can have an inside perspective as to why you might be losing out to someone else, as well as make changes to increase your business and margin.

There are a several ways to get a good idea of who your competitors are and what they’re doing well. But it might take you a little time and research.

Get an idea of your main competitors by looking at recent press releases in your area, the Chamber of Commerce member directory, or advertisement flyers that you’ve received personally. 

Once you’ve figured out who your top competitors are, you need to understand what the business and owners are all about. What service do they sell? Who are their loyal customers? What differences are there between how they do business and how you do business?

After you’ve dug a little and done your research, it’s a good time to take a look at what you may be doing right and what could be better. What are those companies doing differently to draw customers in that you aren’t doing? 

After reviewing the positive methods of other businesses, ask yourself, “What are they doing that might be driving customers out?” For example, is their customer service poor? Are their operating hours limited? Once you can identify where other businesses are having problems, it’s easy for you to increase business by avoiding those mistakes.

Taking time to find out who your main competitors are, what they are doing well, and things they can improve on can be a major benefit to your business. It’s tough to objectively look at your own business without bias, that’s why it’s so valuable to assess your competition. Identify positives and negatives, look at different strategies, and get more ideas to make your business solid, while making your customer service even greater.