Page 82 - Business Plans that Work A Guide for Small Business

Industry: Zoom Lens on Opportunity • 73

Lazybones Competitor Section

2.2 Competition

Service Competitors

Lazybones competes with local laundromats that offer wash-and-fold laundry
services and, in some new locations, laundry services that outsource the actual
laundry (such as DormAid). Lazybones also competes with students doing
their laundry themselves and with those students who live close enough to take
their laundry home for Mom.

Identifies the
likely sources of competi-
tion. Note, also include those
students who will do it
themselves or take it home
to Mom (assuming they live
close enough).
A secondary business,
but not the key area where
they compete.
A competitive profile
matrix gives a snapshot on
For storage, larger campuses typically have three or four how Lazybones stacks up.
providers in the area. These are generally local moving companies Note that this is from Dan’s
perspective and might be
filling a need. A few national companies exist that aggregate biased, but the following
student services, offer them over the Web, and then outsource paragraphs explain his ratio-
nale. Be careful to include
the work out to local businesses. the key components of your
business model and those of
the competitors as a guide to
Exhibit 2.1 Competitive Profile Matrix the matrix components.

DIY
(do it Laundromats Mom DormAid Lazybones
yourself)
Quality 3 4 5 3 5
In House/ In house In Dorm In house Outsource In house
Outsource
Focus on College 2 5 5 5 5
Student
Storage 1 3 3 1 5
Efficiency/Systems 3 2 3 4 5