Jeremy Hall – Confessions of a serial entrepreneur

Competition

Continuing with the theme of training, I have taken a big look at competition. For most business owners this is a simple subject.

1. Research the competition
2. Undertake a credit search on them, look at their website
3. Document the competitors in the business plan
4. Detail your USP’s and their weaknesses

Clearly that is the first place to start. Successful entrepreneurs will look deeper. The meeting book and recognition plaque business is a small simple business, the competition is easy to find and evaluate. To make matters worse, customers can search them quickly and easily on the web.

I have taken a completely different approach when training on competition. Our competition is;

1. Apathy / the customer just does nothing
2. The customer cannot see the benefit compared to the cost
3. The customer cannot think of a NEED or does not have a NEED
4. A standard non personalised note pad
5. Other forms of corporate gifts

Looking at a personalised meeting book we have documented other companies that produce a similar product. We know the market price and differences in the product.  Our key objective is to win against the real competition, the list above as opposed to battling it out with companies that supply a similar product.