Comments on: How Many Is Too Many? Taking a Look at Your Competition

By: Entrepreneurial Decision Making: Choosing the Right Idea by Erik Karey: Internet Entrepreneur

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:22:19 +0000

[...] Research It I talked about this yesterday, but researching the competition can help you to decide whether to move forward with one particular idea over another. By evaluating [...]

By: Verne

Verne — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:40:45 +0000

Good advice to all us serial entrepreneurs out there. At any given moment I’ve got 3-5 different new projects that I’m itching to start. Doing the research you’ve recommended here should be among the things everyone should do to help make the tough decision of whether to commit or not.

By: Erik Karey

Erik Karey — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 20:47:16 +0000

Jon - Your right about when there is no competition it’s hard to gauge the market interest, but then again too much competition and it’s hard to get a piece of the market share. You have to find the right balance I think.

By: Jon Cardozo

Jon Cardozo — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:57:57 +0000

I agree with you that sometimes you have to go ahead and not be afraid of the competition. One thing you have to keep in mind is that if there is no competition, then there’s probably not a sufficient interest in the marketplace. You could be the first one with a great idea, but knowing that there is already competition helps to convince you of the viability of the market.

I heard one marketer say that he spends half his time studying his competition and the other half doing a better job than them. This may seem like a simple statement or a cliche, but I think it is incredibly profound. It’s one of those nitty gritty details that we can’t overlook in our daily business.

By: Deron Sizemore

Deron Sizemore — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:28:15 +0000

Yeah, I think you’ll do just fine. A lot of people are afraid of competition, but I look at it as a motivator. I can see what the competition is doing, and do it (or try to) better. Google wasn’t the first search engine, but they’ve done it better than anyone else.

By: Erik Karey

Erik Karey — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:17:30 +0000

Yeah Deron, for one of the ideas I plan to start developing this month, I have 2 strong competitors and then 2 weaker ones. I’m hoping there is room for me in the market and like I said at the end of the article, I’m willing to try and see what happens instead of wondering.

Best of luck with your product as well!

By: Deron Sizemore

Deron Sizemore — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:14:17 +0000

I agree. I’m getting ready to develop a new niche site and have been doing some of the very things you discuss here. Luckily for me though, my business partner and I will only have one competitor. So hopefully we can put out a great product for the visitors in this niche.