Page 81 - Business Plans that Work A Guide for Small Business

72 • Business Plans that Work

a greater challenge. The best way for savvy entrepreneurs to gather this
information is through their network and via trade shows and to make
purchases from the competitor. We know a large Burger King franchisee
who eats at McDonald’s once a month.
Who should be in the entrepreneur’s network? First and foremost are
the customers the entrepreneur hopes to sell to in the near future. Just as
you are (or should be) talking to your potential customers, your exist-
ing competition is interacting with the customers every day, and your
customers are likely aware of the stealth competition that is on the ho-
rizon. Although many entrepreneurs are fearful (verging on the brink of
paranoia) that valuable information will fall into the wrong hands and
lead to new competition that invalidates the current venture, the reality is
that entrepreneurs who operate in a vacuum (meaning they don’t talk to
customers or show up at tradeshows, etc.) fail far more often than those
who are talking to everybody they can. Talking allows entrepreneurs to
get invaluable feedback that enables them to reshape their product offer-
ing before launching a product that may or may not be accepted by the
marketplace. So network not only to find out about your competition but
also to improve your own venture concept.
Once you have completed your competitor analysis, the stage is set to
talk about your venture. For this reason, we suggest you include your
venture in the matrix. It highlights where your venture expects to have a
competitive advantage.

Figure 4.2 Sample Source for Database Information on Public/Private Companies

Infotrac — Index/Abstracts of journals, general business and finance maga-
zines, market overviews, and profiles of public and private firms.
Capital IQ — Key people and contact info; company tear sheet; financial
statements and ratios; suppliers/customers, M&A; stock prices.
Thomson ONE Banker — Company overview, history, analyst reports,
deals, financial statements.
Business Source Complete — EBSCOhost — Find Datamonitor Company
Reports, Company Profiles tab: SWOT analysis, competitors, summary.
ReferenceUSA — Search for companies by name or other criteria; create
mailing lists; identify contacts. Many search criteria to find over 14 million
company locations.
LexisNexis Academic — Business tab: overview, history, corporate struc-
ture, news, intellectual property.
Thomasnet.com — Directory of manufacturers, suppliers, and distribu-
tors. Search by industry, company name, brand, CAD drawings, and more.
Includes links to Web sites and company catalogs.