Competition

Competition

When your competition is small or local or private, the information will be harder to come by, of course. Private companies have no obligation to tell you anything. You probably won't get financial information at all, and you certainly won't get their business plans. But you'll still be able to develop a competitive analysis. It gets harder--you have to research more and accept more educated guessing where you'd rather have hard information. Still, there are ways to get a good idea. Try these options:

1. Shop your competition. Depending on what business they're in, you can probably call them, visit their offices and perhaps buy from them. Get a price list. Listen to their pitch. If it's applicable, count the cars in their parking lot. Count customers coming out of their store, both with and without purchases.
2. Talk to their customers. What do their customers like or dislike about each competitor? Why and how do customers decide between one competitor or another?
3. When competitors are local, take a look at the Yellow Pages of your local phone directory. When I see a plan for a small, local company that should be listed in the Yellow Pages, I expect them to count the ads for the businesses they compete with. Analyze what the others businesses say in their Yellow Pages' ads, which points they emphasize.
4. Purchase credit and background reports at Dun and Bradstreet's website. I just checked while writing this article and reports cost about $100 per company.
5. Purchase mailing lists and directories. They're available for certain types of businesses in certain areas. Try searching the web for mailing list sellers and visiting your chamber of commerce or county government office to see what type of directories they have available for businesses in your area.
6. Go to the economic census at www.census.gov to obtain lists of types of businesses per county in the United States.
7. Small or not, local or not, check your competitors' websites. Study them carefully. Many companies offer an abundance of information about themselves on the web. Do they offer their products or services in an online store? Or do they simply provide information only? Do they have a price list? What are they emphasizing on their site? What do they say about themselves? What conclusions can you draw? Their websites are a great source of company information. No website? That's interesting competitive information as well.
8. Do a thorough search of the internet, using your favorite search engines. Besides their own site, you want to see where else your competition turns up. Maybe they don't have their own site, but they're listed on other sites or have a store in an online mall. And maybe you can find press information on them, articles that profile them or offer information on changes they may have gone through, such as store openings or hiring a new CEO. The web is amazing in what it can reveal.

A business plan needs to be sensitive to the information that's available. You can readily have a competitive analysis that isn't based on hard evidence-legal, factual information. And when they're well researched, educated guesses can be enough to be the basis of planning and decisions. But one way or another, you need to know your competition.

Persaingan itu perlu kerana dari situlah akan wujudnya kreativiti, inovatif dan dinamik malah persaingan itu merangsang pasaran.

Selama terlibat dalam bidang perniagaan, saya banyak diuji dengan perkara-perkara sebegitu. Namun bagi saya, itu semuanya sangkaan-sangkaan sahaja. Saya percaya jatuh bangunnya sesebuah perniagaan itu terletak kepada kreativiti seseorang usahawan itu dalam menguruskan pelbagai aspek dalam bisnes yang diusahakan.

Sebaik-baiknya, janganlah ada mentaliti menuding jari ke arah orang lain atas kegagalan kita itu. Ini merupakan satu helah untuk lari daripada mengakui kelemahan diri.

Apakah pesanan saudara kepada mereka yang berminat dalam bidang perniagaan?

Kunci utama ialah kena ada kesabaran, tekun dan jangan mudah putus asa. Kerana ini faktor daya tahan dan daya juang kena seiring.

Di samping itu, hubungan dengan Allah juga perlu dijaga supaya kita memperoleh rezeki yang berkat. Tanggungjawab mengeluarkan zakat juga perlu dilaksanakan.

Berbalik semula kepada soal kreativiti mesti ada dalam setiap yang bergelar usahawan. Kalau kita buka perniagaan itu baru 20 peratus dan selebihnya terletak kepada faktor kreativiti, inovatif, dinamik, berdaya saing, berani berjuang dan banyak lagi. Barulah berhasil perniagaan tersebut.

Selain itu, saya yakin orang Islam akan membantu sesama Islam. Namun, dalam bisnes seseorang usahawan itu tidak boleh terlalu mengaitkan dari segi emosi. Ini kerana, aspek-aspek lain seperti kualiti, harga murah dan halal kena menjadi keutamaan juga dalam menarik pelanggan Muslim.