Entrepreneurship. Rhonda Abrams

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СКАЧАТЬ Competition comes in the following forms:

      ■ DIRECT COMPETITION: Companies most like yours

      ■ LARGE COMPETITION: The Walmarts and the Home Depots

      ■ ONLINE COMPETITION: Online sellers that may operate from anywhere in the world

      ■ INDIRECT COMPETITION: Other products and services your customers may buy instead of yours

      ■ FUTURE COMPETITION: Competitors that may enter the marketplace in the future.

       When researching your competition, you’ll focus mostly on your direct competitors.

Competition and company

      Conducting research about individual companies offers you many benefits, from identifying your biggest or toughest competitors to determining whether a potential customer is creditworthy. If you seek funding for a business, prospective investors will certainly want to know about the health and performance of your major competitors.

      Finding information about specific companies can often be difficult; after all, they don’t necessarily want their competitors to know what they’re up to. Nevertheless, quite a bit of data is available on publicly traded companies (that is, businesses that sell their stock on a public stock exchange). In the United States, such companies are required by law to regularly disclose financial information to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

      As well, investment analysts track publicly traded companies for their investor clients, and you can access many of their reports on some of the databases listed in this book. These companies are usually of interest to the financial press, too, and you can also find articles about their performance in media archives.

      While locating information about private and smaller companies is more difficult, it’s not impossible. Often you can collect information from industry publications and associations, local media in a company’s home community, research firms such as Dun & Bradstreet, and even a company’s own websites or customers. Be sure to refer to Chapter 20 on pages 483–500 for other research resources.

      FINDING COMPANY DATA HELPS YOU

      Learn which products and services a company offers and, often, how much they charge.

      Estimate the revenues and profits of a company, sometimes including revenues for specific product lines.

      Gather background information about prospective customers and suppliers.

      Investigate potential strategic alliances by finding companies whose services or products complement yours.

      ENTREPRENEUR’S WORKSHEET

       Types of Company Information to Research

       From this list of suggested company topics, select which issues you will focus on.

      ☐ Names of the company:

      — Official corporate name

      — Parent/subsidiary companies

      — Product names

      — Trademarks

      ☐ Company information:

      — Headquarters and locations

      — Names of officers, executives, and staff

      — Press releases

      — Product announcements

      ☐ Products/services of a company:

      — Leading product lines

      — Pricing

      — Features

      — Distribution methods

      — Patents/copyrights and other intellectual property

      ☐ Financial condition of the company, including:

      — Current revenues and profit figures

      — Historical sales, financial performance, and growth rate

      — Stock performance/market value

      — Sales by product lines

      ☐ Other key issues:

      — Is the company publicly traded?

      — Customers/client list/testimonials

      — Legal/regulatory compliance issues

       TIPS FOR FINDING COMPANY INFORMATION

      1. Determine the correct name or names of the company, including:

      Its official corporate name. A company’s corporate name may differ from the one you’re familiar with. For instance, the corporate name for United Airlines is UAL Corporation.

      The name of its parent or its subsidiary company or companies. Some corporations own many subsidiary companies. Bloomingdale’s department store, for instance, is a subsidiary of Macy’s—its parent company.

      Its brand/product names. Often you will know a product’s name but not the name of the company that makes it. For example, Proctor & Gamble makes Crest toothpaste, Tide detergent, and Iams pet food.

       See pages 66 and 70

      2. Make sure you spell any names correctly when entering them into keyword searches.

      3. Check the company’s website. Look for an About Us section and a Press/Media section, which usually feature background information about the company and its officers, press releases, and recent news articles. Also look for product information and lists of clients and customers or testimonials.

      4. Learn whether the company you research is public or private.

      5. Identify the U.S. state in which the company is legally incorporated (if applicable). You can typically find the names of corporate officers and company contact information through СКАЧАТЬ