Madeline Boyd – June 2004
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This article was written by Kim Komando.This article says that in a few hours you can gather enough information on your business competitors to get a sense of where they are versus where you are in the markets place. All this information is found on the web. The four steps that are discussed in this article are: 1. Know their their products and pricing. Ms. Knomando suggested that you go on your biggest competitor’s Web sites. This is where you will find information about what they are selling and at what price. It also talks about the changes that the companies make and how the company is doing. Ms. Knomando suggested that if you don’t have time, you could use a notification service. 2. Look at any job openings. Check to see if your competitor is expanding or going in a new direction. You can find out lots of information through help-wanted advertising. You can find this information by looking at sites on the Web. You can find this information by looking in the newspaper clssififieds ads also. These listings can tell you more than what your competitors are planning. 3. Get the gossip. Go to businesses conventions, especially the one where your competitors are not there. Check out newsgroups and message boards. Some time you can go on a chat line and discuss the goods and bads about a company. Just be careful of what you say. Ms. Knomando mentions that often times employee will vent about their company, in goods ways and bad. 4. Read up on competitors’ plans and finances. Look on Industry associations Internet site. You can find out who your competitors are and what people are saying about their future plans. You can find out about their local economies and trade areas. You can see how they dominate the market. The article mention several Web sites that one can obtain this infomation.