B: iii) Customers and Competition

Your Customers

Why should people buy from you, and not someone else?  What is going to be different about your product/service to persuade customers to choose/use you?
Are you selling it from a shop, office, the Internet, by telephone, word of mouth, through advertising?

Who are going to be my customers?

• Local or national
  
• One off or regular
  
• Personal, business or professional?
  
• Retail/services/manufacturing or wholesale? 
  
• How can you make your business/product more attractive to potential customers than the competition?

The Competition

• Who and where are they?
  
• How do they sell/promote their services? 
  
• Is there a weakness or a gap in their market that I can exploit? 
  
• Is there scope to establish/grow my business in my chosen area/field, and to make sufficient profit for me to live in the style I wish to?   (Sometimes different businesses of the same type, bookshops/restaurants etc, can be mutually beneficial in close proximity, because of the larger choice/range offered in one location).
  
• Check with the local planning office, if appropriate, of any proposed future planning developments/proposals which might have an effect upon your future business.