2.3 Analyse your competition

Now that you have identified a problem you want to solve, it's important to understand the competitive landscape.

It’s important to understand that competition isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it shows that customers are willing to pay to have their problems solved. However, it's crucial to understand how these businesses solve their customers' problems and how you can differentiate yourself from them.

If you simply do what others are doing, marketing your product and convincing customers to join your unknown business will be extremely challenging. This is why we started by identifying your unique insights, as this will help you differentiate from the competition.

There are many ways to find competitors. Here are some of the most common approaches you can follow.

Analyse relevant competitors more closely

Once you have generated a good overview of the competition in your market, analyze some competitors more closely. Focus your analysis on relevant competitors. In the end, you want to look at and learn from the winners. There is not much to learn from the losers, except what you should not do.

To identify successful competitors, look for those that experience the most traction. Such traction can come in different ways, including:

• Large market share
• Fast growth
• Major investments
• Going viral and media attention

Simply go through the list of your competitors and ask yourself whether the businesses you have listed experience such traction. If yes, put them on your shortlist to analyze them more closely.

To analyze relevant competitors more closely, create a simple table, as illustrated below, and go through the questions stated in the rows.

If you want to analyze certain competitors more closely, you may want to consider the following strategies to generate in-depth insights: