01 May IT Support Portland Analyzes Your Business Competition

Competition is not only limited to businesses, this situation can be seen in different areas of life, even in the most trivial matters. However, experiencing competition can make or break you, there will always be a winner and a loser in the competition. Experiencing wins and losses works the same, they can make you or break you, it is not often advantageous to win and not always a disadvantage to lose. In terms of business matters, competition is very healthy, with competition you can improve your products and services, it is beneficial in many ways. IT Support Portland knows that being within the competition is very important, thus, will be of help to small business in terms of analyzing the competition and making strategies possible in order to stay in the competition.

            However, you can’t simply just enter the competition unarmed, there are steps you must do in order to prepare for the competition, and the first thing to do is analyze the competition. You must not be afraid to know and study your industry’s competition, you will learn a lot from it. More so, you will know that when they do this, it must be very effective since they are remaining in the industry. It will be very profitable and advantageous to your business if you do this. IT Support Portland can help you in many ways in order to analyze your competition. Here are some of the ways to analyze the competition in your industry:

            IT Support Portland can help you identify your competitors, your business competitors are those who has the same market as you, and offers the same product or service as you. These two factors are very important and go hand in hand, for example, a construction company can have its office beside another construction company, but they can be not competitors, especially if they have different places they focus on. One can serve around the state while the other serves locally in their town. There are different types of competition, it can be a direct competition where the market and the products they sell or service they offer are the same. Moreover, it could also be a secondary competition or commonly called indirect competition, these are businesses which offer slight difference in terms of product and services and market however they are within the same place. Lastly are substitute competition, this are businesses that is offering different product or a different service but has the same market within the same location.

            Another method in order for you to analyze your competition with the help of IT Support Portland is to gather information about them. After you identify the competition, you must gather information about them, and this must be as much as you can.  This could be their product and services, which must be evaluated and compared to what you offer. Usually you can do this by purchasing or trying their products or services. You can determine their quality, their features, which of the areas of the product or service do you like or do you dislike. Determine their suppliers and does the product has good or bad image from the customers. Moreover, you should also determine the pricing, with the help of IT Support Portland, how is it priced, does it vary, do they have discount policies, cost structure. In this way, you could price your product or services as low as you can without sacrificing your profits and the quality of the product or service that you offer.

            Furthermore, you should also determine your business competition’s positioning in the market, through IT Support Portland, you can analyze the website or social media pages or accounts of your competition, it is usually available in the web, like documents, brochures of your competition or their catalogues. You should follow them and visit them when they participate at trade shows, where you can determine their target market or how unique their product or service is. You should also determine your competition’s reputation, you should talk to customers, suppliers and other external people related to your competition. They will tell you how they view them, what are their opinions about them, etc.

            After getting enough information from them, IT Support Portland will also help you with something deeper, like their strengths and their weakness. In this way, it will help you evaluate them properly, IT Support Portland can help you prepare an evaluation with proper contrasting and comparing for you to know how they are performing in the business. It is very important to determine their strengths and weaknesses. When you have a proper evaluation of your competitions’ strength and weakness, you will know what you can use as strategy and what you should avoid. Especially for the small businesses, it will benefit you a lot if you do this.

            For business who just entered the industry, it is also a good idea to talk to your potential competition directly. IT Support Portland can lay you up a business email for you to set an appointment with them and talk to your competitors personally. This could also be a start of a good personal and business relationship with your competition. However, this does not work every time as you can’t always come to an understanding with your competitors, but you can still get significant information about them.                 IT Support Portland can also help you identify your advantage in the competition, if you are able to analyze and identify it, you can definitely attract the new customers. However, the problem is that your advantage can also be copied by your competition, thus, you must have some tricks up your sleeves. This could be a very reliable strength for your business and can even give you a good reputation in the industry and a brand image that can make you different from other businesses in the industry. It is very important for you to analyze your competition in the industry, this is a good way to be successful in the industry.