Edmonton Business Coach | Business Plan Market Risk Analysis

Edmonton Business Coach | Are You Ready To Win Now?

So it’s not just, it’s not good enough to be good and you have to be better than the people that you’re competing against. Yeah, I can see why with the two I can be you and cause it’s not. Hi there. And thanks for tuning in for another episode of ask Sperl CPA. Today as the Edmonton business coach, we’re talking about the business plan analyzing competitors. So analyzing betters in your business plan. I Have Laura here with me again today. Laura, how you doing today? Pretty good. Excited for my flag football game tonight. Flag football. And so do you have a position of flag football? Um, I, I’m both the defensive receiver, defense and receiver. Okay. And so Laura is the de facto, uh, league all-star in flag football up in to translate straight into that from playing to, to all league all stars. So, um, things you learned in these videos. So, so the quote that I have here today, it’s a zig Ziglar quote and it says you were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win and expect to win. And the statistic that we have here is industry Canada. You know, suggest to us that 15% of all businesses fail in year one, 30% will fail by year two and by year five, 50% of the businesses that started out without fail. And the story that we have here are most business owners, they’re developing their product and services to be good. However, business is not about being good. Businesses only succeed if the products and services are better than their competitors. So Laura, what are the questions that these business owners should be asking so they can analyze their competitors correctly in that business plan to win?

If your products are good but not better than your competitors, will sales struggle? Yeah, and that’s the thing that we have to, this is the old businesses, not a fourth place participation ribbon sport. It’s heck, it’s not even a silver medal sport. It’s, you know, there’s this customer’s out there and they either buy from you or they buy from their competitors or they don’t buy it all. But you know, it’s kind of binary. Either they’re going to purchase or they’re not. Um, so it’s not just, it’s not good enough to be good and you have to be better than the people that you’re competing against. Should Your Business Plan analyze your competitors?Yeah. If you want to beat your competitors, you need to analyze him. You know, in the same way that athletes will, will watch game tape on the other flag football teams. You guys do that with flag football, right? For the Most amazing Edmonton Business Coach call herer! You Watch game tape all the time. So maybe, maybe not fight football. Maybe the NFL, they watch game tape on the other teams. You know, it’s the same thing in business. You need to pay attention to what your competitors are doing to make sure that you’re still competitive, to make sure you’re staying ahead of the game to make sure you’re delivering a value proposition that’s unique to you and different than your competitors. So you need to 100% analyze your business competitors to succeed at business. [inaudible]do you do it in the market and risk analyst section after the trends and before risk?

Yeah, I like it. Then. So I like to have known your, what are the trends in the industry first because, uh, you know, that way might identify something and that trends that no one else sees coming. Maybe it’s a challenge. Maybe it’s an opportunity, but I want to identify that. And then after that I want to look at my competitors next and then I’m gonna, you know, flush out what my competitors are doing and then I’m gonna it’ll make it full circle and, and look at the risks because a lot of the risks are gonna deal with how my competitors are doing and what they’re doing cause they, they’re generally the ones that can cause me the most problems. Although there’s other risks in business, uh, generally the competitors are the biggest risk of all. how many competitors, competitors do you recommend looking at?

I tell people five. Uh, I think you can get a good cross section for most small businesses. If you look at at five competitors, you know, it’s not practical to, to look at every, um, you know, every competitor. You have a, I think you, you look at five really, what do you say to business owners who say their business has no competitors? I tell them every business has competitors. It’ll happen. It’s a natural thing where they say, Hey, I’m unique. I do things different. Um, but no matter what you’re doing, you always have competitors. There’s always other things, you know, buying for that value. Let’s say you, you’re selling a speedboat and your speed bull is the fastest speed boat and, and it’s the only one that can go this speed. Well, what people don’t know is you’re not just competing with the other boats. You’re competing with trailers. You know, when people are either going to buy a trailer to tow behind their truck or they’re going to buy a boat, they’re generally not going to buy both this year. Make sure to call us now for Edmonton Business Coach today! So a lot of times they’re, they’re cross shopping. You know, we have one client who does no real specialty fitness studios and although they’re, you know, really unique, that scene potential client might just go buy a regular gym membership and World Health Club and call it a day. So you’re not just it. Just because your knee doesn’t mean that you have no competitors. I mean your competitors might be doing something different, but generally you’re vying for similar dollars that are earmarked for similar purposes.

Should you only analyze competitors are the same size as you? I don’t think so. I think that’s a mistake and a lot of people think that okay I’m in business and I have five employees, I’m going to look around and, and compare myself to the other electrical companies, the five employees. And they don’t think that’s the way to go about it because at the end of the day, the customer might hire someone bigger than you. They might hire some of the same size as you or they might hire someone smaller than you. So I really think you should get a good cross section. That’s why I say that five cause you can usually get people who are like the same size as you. Uh, you know, what are they doing? Look at the big guys too. What are they doing? Cause they’re getting a big portion of the market share. How do you, I want to know how my differentiation strategies relate to them. And then I also want to look at the small guy. So sometimes the small guys, they don’t have the same value proposition, their services and as refined, maybe they’re cheaper. I really want to understand what’s going on at, you know, every life cycle of these various businesses. Cause ultimate at the end of the day the customer could hire any of those companies. So you analyze your arch nemesis in this section. This is like my favorite thing to do in business files. Well I always ask the business owner, who do you want to beat the most? And it might be just a little bit of a cheap motivation tactic, but I think it keeps it a little bit more fun. And then other than what most business you’re in, it really probably doesn’t matter that much. How, you know, how well one competitor does to the other. A lot of times it’s a former employer. Just please call us now at 780-665-4949 or go to spurrell.ca as you area able to!

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They, they broke off and started their own business and they used to do that one. But that’s a good thing. And it gets them focused because it gets them focused on, you know, probably why they left that company to begin with. Right? And what they want to do different. They see someone else doing it this way and they hate that. It’s like, you know, let’s flush that out because that’s who you are. That speaks to their values that you have and the value proposition and you’re going to have to the customers. Um, I think it’s, it’s a super useful thing to do because it gives you that polarizing outlook and to succeed at business, you can’t be the same and as everyone. So if you can, you know, flush out that arch nemesis it, you know, your polarizing values tend to come up that are different than them. And that really, you know, flushes out, you know, who you should be and how you can differentiate yourself to your customers. Be sure to call us now at 780-665-4949 or check out spurrell.ca as you are able to get the best Edmonton Business Coach now!

What are some common differentiation factors? So some of the common differentiation factors that we find or you know, some people are really focused on, they have unique features or qualities of the service. Maybe one person has a, a a two year warranty and no one else has a warranty. Uh, they have, uh, a certain, um, intellectual property or they have a certain software that no one else has that makes it easier for the customers to do business with them. So something, there’s those unique features. Be sure to call us now to get the best Edmonton Business Coach today! Um, there can also be, you know, some people are going after very niche customers. You have contractors that are only doing, you know, commercial improvements for medical professionals different than the contractor who is going to renovate your house. So going after really niche, uh, you know, part of the market can, uh, can help for sure. Um, and then there’s a number of other things that can differentiate as well.

You know, we’re talking about branding. Branding is like a big one. Does your brand really set yourself apart? It can be the staff, the staff who are working for you. You have a tremendous amount of experience or maybe they’re rookies. Um, and then the organization itself, which is different than the staff. I always have to point this out to people is maybe your organization has been around for a decade or two decades, and the organization itself, people trust the name and the brand and not just the people that are working there. Maybe there’s something that you do that makes the customer experience better or you have unique payment terms. What are some of the common differentiation factors that [inaudible]fine? Should you focus on all of their differentiation strategies or just their strengths? Yeah, so it a lot like, you know, when I tell business owners that, uh, give them the differentiation strategies and I tell them that you’ll pick no more than three, let’s go to one to three that we’re going to be the best at. When in terms of the competitors, I’m usually even more discerning. Please be sure to call us now for the best Edmonton Business Coach today! And it’s like, let’s figure out the one, maybe two things that they try to be the best at. Let’s be really specific cause we just, it doesn’t matter what their second and third items are, it just matters what their best one of us. And do we have an ability to be better at that one thing that they’re focusing on or should we do something else in a different location?

So would you then go back to your own differentiation strategies to compare it? Absolutely. So once we’ve got that list of competitors, we’ve got, you know, people were bigger than us, people of the same size as those people that are smaller than us and we know the things that they’re trying to do, be the best at that one or two things that they’re trying to be the best app. Um, you know, well first of all we’re going to look at how good they’re doing. Sometimes they’re trying to be the best at it, but they’re terrible at it. But maybe they are really good at it. And we got to look, if they are really good at it, we got to compare it to how we’re trying to differentiate ourselves and can we beat them at it? If we can’t meet them at it, let’s look at something else. Is there another opportunity in the market, something else that as a trend in this market that we can exploit an area that we can not just compete in but we can dominate it because no one else is going after it.

Ideally, do you want to complete or just dominate a certain differentiations today? Yeah, that’s what it always comes down to. I think it’s, it’s, some are so saturated. There’s people doing everything and you’re going to have to be competed and then are they, you’re always going to have to compete somewhat because even if you do find a trend and you can exploit it for a while, um, there’s going to be competition. Um, but you know, let’s not choose the path of the most resistant. Let’s find a new that we can really dominate and we’re really focused on being the quickest service provider. Okay. Let’s go to a location where there are no quick service providers and let’s just be a, you know, an all star at that for, for awhile. And then even when people try to come in the market, they try to be as quick as your, they can’t do it. Right? Um, so that’s the ideal scenario is you find an area differentiation strategy that you can exploit in a particular area. Uh, that’s usually the way to success. So I think that’s what we have here today. As always, please hit that like and subscribe button so we can continue to deliver you tips on how to beat the odds at business. And as always, you know, please leave some costs below so we can respond back and aunts and use your input for future videos. Please be sure to call us now at 780-665-4949 or take a peak at spurrell.ca when you can. Please call these guys now at 780-665-4949 or please take a peak at spurrell.ca as you can! Thanks very much.