competition research?

[Island Lawn]

How detailed do ya'll go here?
How much do I need to know about my competition?

[Stonehenge]

This quote may come from Sun Tzu/The Art of War: Hold your friends close, but hold your enemies closer.

[Skookum]

There is soooo much business out there that I do not see this as a major issue fro me right now. But, I will say that in any business, knowledge is power and survival. I would imagine that if you had the time to keep up on such things as your competitors, you would have a slightly bigger edge on them.

[Stonehenge]

I don't know how big everybody's market is, and if you're in a huge one, you may go completely unnoticed. But I was unpleasantly surprised when I talked to a few really big competitors and they seemed to know more about my biz than I did.

Made me realize I needed to watch them, too. Might help you to catch a trend you'd have otherwise missed.

[kutnkru]

I can tell you the names of their clients and the competions parents if you asked. Its not about being nosy, its about rule #1: Cover thy own arse first.

Kris

[65hoss]

I'm in a huge market so I go virtually unnoticed. There are several big players in the area that are in competition with each other but they don't effect me in any way. I consider my competition the highly manacured lawn business. The guys who don't side discharge. In my area, you can tell in about 1 day that a lawn was side discharged. 90% of the small companies in my area side discharge so they are of no concern to me. My customers would never deal with this type of cutting. I pay more attention to the trailers pulling Walkers or exmarks.

[BUSHMASTER]

I am not the biggest or the smallest BUT i do consider myself as The Competion....

[Pauls Mowing]

My theory is if I spend my time keeping up with the the competition, I'm not doing my job. I'm sure they don't worry about me, and I don't worry about them. But we always wave to each other when we pass on the road.

Paul

[Stonehenge]

I think if I don't pay attention to what's going on with the competition, I'm not doing my job. If you think you can figure out all of the latest tricks and utilize all of the latest tools to get the job done well and fast, and recognize all the newest trends, you're fooling yourself. Many of my competitors are really smart. I'd bet yours are, too. I try to learn from them.

I do all I can to make my company better than the rest, and I always check to see that they aren't doing the same.

You might wave to your competition. I stop by and talk to them. I watch what they're doing. I ask them questions. About what they're doing at this job. About business in general. About anything I can think of.

[Mike Nelson]

Paul's Mowing,
I would not take that approach in business.They probably know alot more about you than you think!
I don't care what business you are in,you better know what your competition is doing and know your market share.
Just trying to help.