Competitive analysis for home business

Information for home business

Today’s guest post helps you to keep up with your home business competitors:

One of the key factors in developing a successful home business strategy is staying informed about your competition. Finding information about your chosen market and using it to drive your business forward are skills that can be applied at any time.

If you are setting up a home business, it is vital that you consider the competition to understand what resources you might need, including staffing, space and the existing marketplace.
  
Competitive analysis techniques vary, but the goal is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors. This allows you to assess your own position in the marketplace and make sure your product is competitive.

When collecting this information, some methods you may want to use include:
advertising campaigns in print or online media
industry magazines
in-house literature
attendance at trade fairs or industry events

You may also want to look up Companies House information for a detailed picture about the historical performance of your competitors. You can easily look up Companies House at Duedil.com or other online databases.

Whilst the above methods are helpful in building up a picture of a business, you can get an equally important insight by reading relevant blogs or social media comments. Using Google Alerts to keep informed every time your competitor is mentioned is a good way of staying up to date. It can be invaluable when assessing any potential changes to your home business model.

Brand awareness and promotional technique are also important aspects of a home business strategy. Pay particular attention to how companies use these methods to differentiate themselves from their competitors and to reinforce their own identity.

Bear in mind that it’s what you decide to do with the results of a competitive analysis that really make the difference to your home business success. Don’t become too focused on imitating what your competitors are doing, but use your own knowledge and experience to develop and respond to changes in your shared marketplace.

If a competitor is doing well, it means that there are people out there interested in seeing if you can do any better. Using competitive analysis is only the beginning – it’s how you respond to it that makes the real difference. What’s more, you can easily do some research with a few clicks of the mouse from the comfort of your home office.