{"id":12451,"date":"2015-10-01T06:17:40","date_gmt":"2015-09-30T19:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/?p=12451"},"modified":"2023-06-05T20:48:59","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T09:48:59","slug":"how-to-learn-from-your-competitors-as-an-entrepreneur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creately.com\/blog\/marketing\/how-to-learn-from-your-competitors-as-an-entrepreneur\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Learn from Your Competitors as an Entrepreneur"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It has been my observation that businesses can be classified into three broad types. The first and the most exciting of these is the type of business that brings to market a very unique and revolutionary product that nobody had dreamed of before and establishes a completely new market segment. Names that jump to mind are Google, Apple & Facebook. <\/span><\/p>\n

The second category is made of companies that take an existing idea or product and adapt it to a different market or situation thereby creating value. <\/span>Think of Alibaba, which took the business model of Amazon and adapted it to the Chinese market and has become hugely successful in the process.<\/p>\n

The last category is made up of companies that are formed with a \u201cme-too\u201d product or service addressing the same market, but become successful by excelling in one aspect of the product. An example is Budget of the car rental industry, a company that competes with more established rivals such as Avis purely on price.<\/p>\n

It is also my observation that most businesses in the world fall into the second and third categories. It is phenomenally hard to come up with something that can create an entirely new market segment! My own company MecSoft<\/a>, that develops computer-aided manufacturing software, falls into the second category. We took an established technology and adapted it to the personal computer thereby allowing us to serve a large market segment that was previously not being served by established players.<\/p>\n

Given the fact that most companies in the world have precursors or have businesses that have something in common, it would behoove entrepreneurs to be aware of that what their competitors are doing (or have done) and can use that knowledge to be more innovative, unique, better, faster or cheaper.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the competitive areas I commonly examine on my road as an entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

Think of Competition as Education<\/h3>\n

One of the most fundamental requirements of being an entrepreneur is to understand what you\u2019re up against. Your business plan likely outlines who your competitors are and why they are your competitors. In order to place your business in a good place to outperform them, you should be educating yourself on the processes they use to be successful.<\/p>\n

Learning about things like how they market their services, their pricing model, their value-adds, their media presence, and what makes them different will give you some great perspective. When you know everything about your company and everything about the companies of your competitors, you\u2019ll be more clearly able to identify opportunities for market share and growth.<\/p>\n

Find out what People Don\u2019t Like about Your Competitors<\/h3>\n

This is one area where your research will help you separate your business from your competition. If your competitors have been around for a while you should be able to go online to see what kinds of complaints their customers have about them. You can peruse social media, forum sites, and review sites like Yelp or Google Reviews for comments about their products or services.<\/p>\n

For example, when we started MecSoft we took a look at some of the common complaints that our end-users had when using competitive products. What we found was that other CAD\/CAM software companies made customers sacrifice cost for quality and provided either great products that were really expensive or mediocre products that were inexpensive. This led us, in part, to create a company that provided affordable yet powerful software solutions and we haven\u2019t looked back since.<\/p>\n

Note: Back then we didn\u2019t have as much access to social media and review sites but we certainly had a pulse on what people in the industry were saying about our competitors and continue to monitor these mentions now.<\/p>\n

Find out what People Do Like about You Competition<\/h3>\n

On the other side of the review coin is learning about what people do like about your competition. If they are doing something right you have to give them credit for their success and use that information to cater to customers.<\/p>\n

This does not mean you copy what they have done but rather combine your knowledge of what people are saying they don\u2019t like and what they do like to determine if there is an opportunity there to create something better, faster or cheaper than your competition.<\/p>\n

Use the \u201cSWOT\u201d Analysis to Compare Yourself<\/h3>\n

In the SWOT analysis you take a side-by-side comparison to your competition in the areas of:<\/p>\n