What products / services do your competitors offer and what are their strengths and weaknesses? <back>
After you get the names and addresses of your competitors from Reference USA, you can go onto the Internet to find their web sites and obtain information on their products/services.
You can also look through trade or industry publications to find articles, news, press releases, advertisements about your competition. This is also a great way to research what trade shows and other events (including web seminars also known as webinars) that your competition may be involved in.
Quite often you can find information on the web sites of industry associations. You may want to consider becoming a member of an association that focuses on your area of expertise. Examples of industry associations include (1) the American Marketing Association (AMA); (2) the Independent Computer Consultants Association (ICCA); Council of Defense and Space Industry Association (CODSIA); (4) Jewelers of America; (5) International Association of Department Stores; and (6) the Society for Technical Communication (STC) for technical writers, editors, web designers, and others that need to communicate technical information.
Valuable information about the products and services that your competition offers and their strengths and weaknesses can also be acquired by networking with your target audience, peers, people in management, and by becoming a member of a networking organization. Examples of networking associations include (1) Business Networking International; (2) North Shore Women In Business; and (3) the Chamber of Commerce.
Other great sources of competitive and industry information include industry analyst reports, consumer reports, and business plans of companies in your industry. Some business libraries carry the Business Plans Handbook that contains sample business plans for a wide variety of businesses.
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