{"id":72,"date":"2016-07-10T20:05:33","date_gmt":"2016-07-10T20:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/entre-plan.com\/?page_id=72"},"modified":"2016-07-12T00:35:07","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T00:35:07","slug":"market-competition","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/market-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Market \u2013 Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Would you ever run for an elected office without knowing who the other candidates were?\u00a0 Knowledge of your competitors&#8217; background, habits, products, personnel, strengths and weaknesses, goals, and future plans gives you power, as well as helps you develop your product and marketing plan, and may even be the deciding factor in whether or not you go into business.\u00a0 Investors also want to know what their up against.\u00a0 They want assurance that you have an intimate knowledge of your competition&#8211;not just a list of names.\u00a0 Here are some questions that can help you describe your competitors:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Who are your biggest competitors?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0How do you stand next to your competitors in terms of market share, price, profits, quality, research and development, reputation, sales, distribution, production capabilities, and service?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Why do people buy your competitors&#8217; products&#8211;large, well-known, respected corporation, major distribution and service network, quality?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Do your competitors or their products have any weaknesses or problems?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0How would you rate their products&#8211;good, bad, ugly, beautiful, mediocre?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Do your competitors&#8217; products meet all the requirements and specifications demanded by your market?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Do you interface well with significant, non-competitive equipment whose manufacturers may be reluctant to support your product due to warranty, liability, or image considerations?\u00a0 For instance, do you produce a software program compatible with IBM computers?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Why have companies dropped out of the industry in recent years?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Will your sales be at the expense of your competitors&#8217;, or will your market expand?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0How will your competitors&#8217; influence your start-up?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Is your product easily copied?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0How much head-start do you have over your competitors?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Whom of your competitors are more opportunistic and likely to take risks?\u00a0 On the other hand, which companies are more stable and long-term?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Do your competitors have enough resources to see them through a product failure or a recession?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0How does your company compare when it comes to aggressive selling tactics?\u00a0 For example, would you describe yourself as cut-throat, hold-your-own, price-cutting, or a follower?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0What pricing policies do your competitors have, and how do these compare to yours?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Is your product competitively priced on a feature-by-feature basis with other products on the market?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0If your product is cheaper than your competitors&#8217;, explain why and how you are still able to make a profit.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0How will you justify price increases over and above your competitors&#8217;&#8211;newness, quality, warranty, service, delivery time?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Your Competitors&#8217; Key People<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Who are your competitors&#8217; key personnel?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0How do these key personnel fit into their organization?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Do they have a history of success or failure?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Do the marketing and sales executives stand firm on their pricing policies, or have they resorted to price cutting?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Does the CEO have a tendency to ship products of questionable quality at month-end to boost monthly sales?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Does the manufacturing manager have a history of shipping high- or low-quality products?\u00a0 What is his on-time record?\u00a0 Does the product work when the customer receives it or is it dead on arrival?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Does the engineering manager have a reputation for solid designs, poor designs, or expensive products?<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Does the financial officer pay the company&#8217;s bills on time, or are they typically late?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Would you ever run for an elected office without knowing who the other candidates were?\u00a0 Knowledge of your competitors&#8217; background, habits, products, personnel, strengths and weaknesses, goals, and future plans gives you power, as well as helps you develop your product and marketing plan, and may even be the deciding factor in whether or not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":23,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-72","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/72","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/72\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73,"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/72\/revisions\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entre-plan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}