Identify your competition
Identify your competition. This may seem obvious, but it’s not necessarily a simple task. For example, if you decide to start a magazine for the local business community, who are your competitors? If your answer is there are no other business magazines around, then you don’t understand the question. Maybe the local newspaper has a regular section devoted to business. That’s competition for coverage. Do you intend to sell ads? If so, you’re competing for advertising money with newspapers, radio, TV, and billboards. Do you intend to sell subscriptions? If so, then you’re competing for customer money, time, and loyalty with national business publications, and to a great extent, with any subscription publication. This example should show that identifying your competition can be far from simple.
Pick out the two or three major advantages your company has that set it apart from your competitors. An accounting firm, for example, might have experience with not-for-profit businesses. Such a market advantage becomes a cornerstone of the firm’s business strategy.
Some people call that particular segment of a specific economy a “niche.” It’s the slice of the dollar pie your business hopes to claim; that piece of the public consciousness you want to capture and hold. You need to understand what chunk of turf you want to stake out, or success in doing so will be primarily a matter of luck.
Tags: business philosophy, business plan, competition, strategy