Research your competitors

There is a saying KILL or BE KILLED !

It is the same in business.

Can you name your top 10 competitors ? Have you studied them ?  Have you done a SWOT Analysis on them ?

Start by downloading their last 5 years accounts and analyse -  use www.companieshouse.co.uk

A set of accounts costs just £1 !

Compare your business costs and income and ratios to theirs.  Compare things like sales per staff member compared to your company. 

Then look at their website - you can learn alot from this. Is it better than yours, are the services they offer better than yours ?

Looking at a competitor website is free information. Use it.

GOOD COMPETITOR ANALYSIS IS KEY.

Benchmarking can be very enlightening - and many companies say they do it but they don't really do it properly.