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The Importance of Analyzing your Home Business Competition |
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Submitted by Ezra Turk
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When you initially launch your home business venture, it is vital that you take a close and unbiased look at your direct competition so as to gain the insights that will be needed. This is probably one of the most key parts of your business plan, and it is often ignored bu would-be entrepreneurs, unfortunately.
If you are set to launch your home business, the first step is to analyze your competition before your quit your day job. In fact, you will to set aside a specific duration of time at regular intervals to take a peak at your competition and gain crucial business 'intel'. A few of the areas you should certainly observe include their sales copy, their unique competitive advantage and marketing/advertising postion. Do not fail to look at any of these critical areas; it is indeed essential that you cover each one of them. Be certain to talk with your competition whenever you can, realizing that most business owners, believe it or not, really do enjoy discussing their home business ventures since they are so near and dear to their hearts. Really, it is much like parents enjoy discussing their kids in many cases. Just invite another business owner to lunch and be sure it is on you.
Obviously, you may be better off talking with an out-of-town competitor as you certainly do not want them to be defensive about another competitor close by. If your home business will be limited to a certain area, then go a tad outside of it. And be certain to use the power of the web to spy on your direct competitors. This is quite common nowadays, in fact. Such services as whowhere.com can be a big help, and there are quite a few other services out there to choose from. Another way to obtain this kind of information is to purchase from your competitors. You will then get their promotional print and/or coupons, and you will learn what they charge, which specific services that they feature and how comprehensive their customer service is. If they ship a product, you will discover whether or not they ship in a timely fashion. This knowledge could give you a competitive advantage. Furthermore, you may wish to check out the quality of the products for yourself.
You will probably get additional insights that you never would have considered otherwise. If their venture is a service, you can easily witness the results on your own. It may be a good idea to be honest about what you are doing when you are going about this market research with competitors, as you will wish to avoid a bad reputation with them.
Remember, Your home based business venture may start off rather slowly, regularly steadily adding customers as you become more established. Alternatley, it could take off like a wildfire, swiftly becoming too hot for you to handle by yourself. How well you analyze your competition beforehand will have a lot to do
with either one of those outcomes.
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