The Essential Steps to Business Success—Step Four

          The Essential Steps to Business Success—Step Four           

In today’s business environment, talent alone will not ensure success. You must also learn the skills that help create a successful business, and essential to that undertaking is knowing your competition. Do Olympic athletes train in a vacuum, oblivious to what they will face when the competition begins? No. They exploit their talents, train hard, and know the competition they’re up against.

Step 4: Know Your Competition

Chances are good that you’re not the only business of your type marketing in the area. If you have not differentiated your business, you will not stand out in the crowd, and you can’t differentiate without understanding what your competitors are bringing to the table.

Competitive research needs to start at the top of your organization. Leadership needs to be involved to signal to everyone that this is a priority. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult to conduct. Ask your employees about the competition. Shop the competition. Some basic questions and first-hand experience can provide a lot of information.

Next, conduct a SWOT analysis. Many business owners have heard of a SWOT analysis, but few have conducted them. Have you conducted an analysis of your business to determine your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT)? If not, now is the time.

Look at a SWOT analysis as an opportunity to grow your business and excel beyond your competitors. The comparison of how you stack up against your competition is where the value lies. Ask yourself these questions:

• How can we use our strengths to excel beyond the competition?
• Where can we improve on our weaknesses so that they are no longer a weakness when compared to the competition?
• How can we capitalize on our competitors’ weaknesses?
• What opportunities exist within these strengths and weaknesses?
• What are the threats to our business from inside and outside our organization?
• How can we eliminate the threats to your business?
• Does our competition even consider themselves to be competition?

I was working with an organization recently and by conducting a SWOT analysis we discovered that what they considered their strengths were actually on par with the competition, so, in fact, they did not have the distinct advantages they thought they did.

Don’t fool yourself into thinking you are better than your competition. Know where you stack up. Do the research and use the results to strengthen your game. Knowing the competition will only help to make your business stronger and improve your bottom line.