Start Your Own Biz | 10-Minute Guide to Competitor Analyses

No business plan or marketing plan is complete without a competitor analyses. We say analyses (plural) because there is a lot to do!

You're not an investigator, so where do you start? This 10-minute guide contains a lot of information, so gather up the Q&A you've been putting together from my previous posts in this series, and let's get cracking.

This is Part 5 in an 11-part series on How to Start Your Own Business.

What is a Competitor Analysis?

Well, to put it plainly, competitors are those companies, solopreneurs, creators, and retailers who can put you out of business with just one innovation.

That's a scary thought. How do you prevent this when you're not a researcher, not an investigator, and really don't have a clue about the questions you need to ask?

You perform a competitor analysis (singular). And then you perform another one. And another, and another. You carry on checking out the people and companies that can put you out of business until you know their strategies better than they do.

How many of these do you need to do before you have a good idea of who you are competing against? Well... how many companies sell a product or service similar to yours, are located within your circle of influence, and would definitely look at you as their competitor?

That's how many competitors you need to analyse.

But there is a silver lining in this exercise. You get to compare all of those logos, service offerings, website layouts, pricing structures, and more. This will help you in a big way because your ideas along these lines do still need some brainstorming, and seeing all of this data side-by-side is a great way to make sure your final brand kit is unique.

?? Pick up some more tips in Part 5: Top Tips to Brainstorm Your Company Name. That'll drop tomorrow, if you're still along for the ride...

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How to Complete a Competitor Analysis

Most of the example worksheets I looked at expect you to compare all your competitors on one sheet. The single view does make sense but this is 2024, people, not 1999.

Competitors are as complicated as you are, and yet, as unique, too. A single column with a single row per insight question is just not enough. To 'keep up with the Joneses' on a research level, my suggestion is to create a single worksheet for every competitor, and then use a neon marker pen to highlight what's important to you from this research.

That's the meat on the bones of your strategy, and that can certainly be transferred to one sheet when you're done analysing your analyses.

But before you can do a competitor analysis on anyone, you need to know what you're comparing it against. What's your SWOT?

How Do YOU Stack Up Against the Competition?

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It's an evaluative framework that helps you analyse your current position in the market vs. that of your competitors in the same market. A SWOT assesses both internal and external factors, yet it's also future-focused in nature.

A SWOT is a vital part of this process, so grab a piece of paper and create something like the image below to begin with.

Answer the questions in this image as honestly as possible. Be realistic, critical, and as blunt as you can be about it. The alternative is just to carry on lying to yourself.

Once your SWOT is completed for your own brand/company, move on to the questions below. You can use the SWOT template for every competitor, or a blank page for each of them in your notebook.

PRO TIP! It's complicated doing this on the PC... handwritten notes work best for a comparison like this.

This is not a job for a secretary, marketer, or any other lackey. This MUST be done by YOU to get a realistic, honest view of your place in the market.

Asking the Right Questions About Your Competitors

Apart from the questions a SWOT analysis asks of you, here are a few more you will need to answer before you're ready to compare your brand/product/service in an 'apples vs. apples' kind of way against your competitor:

1. Where is this competitor located?
2. Will their location impact your 'local business' sales in any way?
3. What products do your competitor sell that could rival yours? List them all.
4. How do those products compare to yours on features, functionality, accessories, and affordability?
5. What is their pricing structure, and how does it compare t yours?
6. Who do you think are their suppliers, either for the whole product or for components they assemble themselves? If you're not sure how to check this, you can use a database lookup tool like ImportYeti or similar.
7. Taking a look now ONLY at the products and services similar to yours, what do you estimate their annual sales on this to be?
8. Is the company wholly-owned by someone, part of a larger corporation, or a franchise?
9. Do you know any of the owners, board members, or management team- either by reputation or in direct contact?
10. How actively is this competitor advertising?
11. Where and how is this competitor advertising? This could be on certain social channels, print media, paid ads on Google, or even TV or radio ads.
12. Thinking now about their website, how would you rate the USABILITY of the site on the whole? Is it easy to navigate, fill a cart, and checkout?
13. What would you say the website's weaknesses are? This could be a glitch in branding, a misalignment with their social channels, taking a long time to load, layout problems, 404 error pages, and more. You're basically looking at the site as a buyer. So, how can you turn their weaknesses into your strengths?
14. Is the company expanding or cutting back?
15. What do customers and employees say about working for your competitor? Most of the dirty can be found in comments, especially on channels like X/Twitter, Facebook posts, and sites like Hello Peter, BBB, and more.

Now, between the SWOT analysis for each competitor and your worksheet of answers from the questions above, you should have a pretty good idea of who you're competing with.

And that's it. Tune in tomorrow for Top Tips to Brainstorm Your Company Name.

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WYSIWYG - About My Services

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