Competitive Research And How To Apply It

Competitive research means to understand the different strategies used by a rival or competitor businessman and try to improve your own business according to it. It is an important activity for both entrepreneurs as well as branded businessmen.

What are the benefits from competitive research?
You may think that this will be a time consuming process, but it is not so. Also, competitive research can be done cost effectively through simple methods. You get an idea about where you stand in the market through competitive research. This is an added advantage which can help you to position your company at a better place in the market. Also, you can learn many tips to improve your own business from the mistakes of your competitor as well as from their success. Different intelligent decisions regarding various business factors like price and product can be taken based on the results of competitive research.

What is the use of competitive research?
The product development can be improved and made in such a way as to attract more customers to your product.
The different strategies and positions of different companies in the market can be understood well.
The methods used by rival companies to improve their sales can be known better.
The economic status and the market value of products can be understood.
How the sales of a product will be in the market can be understood and calculated beforehand.
Awareness about the competitor’s pricing variations.
More and new customers can be added to the company.

Why to go for competitive research?
It can act as an important tool in determining the success of your business and increase your sales. Any business is profit oriented. So, a good competitive research will surely help you to make your business successful.

Use Portable air compressors for a quicker work

Think about you getting a flat tire while on the road and to change it, you have to use a bulky and heavy compressor which also takes up a lot of space. Doesn't it feel hectic to even think? That is when portable air compressor comes to your rescue. With more number of people owning their vehicles, the use of air tools have also become frequent.  These are not only used in homes, but also in construction sites and by professionals like interior designers. So, the uses of air compressor too become inevitable. It can help you to shorten the time taken for the work. You need not use a spare tire or car jack to change a tire, if you have an air compressor. They can quickly inflate the tire. Air compressors are essential to run any air tool.

Uses
  Inflation kit is very common in every house.  It is used to inflate cycle tire or football or anything.

·         Sand blaster is another tool where air compressor is used. It is used to remove dust and dirt from surfaces.

·         Nail gun uses portable air compressor. These are used for nailing on walls.

·         Another use is in air stapler which is used for heavy stapling purposes.

·         Air compressors are also used in air sanders which are used to remove rust from surfaces.

Advantages
Traditional air compressors were very heavy and utilized a lot of space. So, it was difficult to use. But, portable air compressors are small and easy to use.

·          These are easier to transport too, as they are not bulky and as the name says, portable. They are lightweight and have wheels attached to roll and move it.

·         There are inbuilt safety devices in the portable air compressors, so are safer to use.

How to know the quality
There are different types of air compressors available in the market now. You have to carefully choose the one that best suits your need.  Among them, the most cost effective ones are the gas powered ones, but they emit fumes which can cause a mess to the surroundings. So, the electrically operated pumps are a better choice. You have to select the portable air compressor according to the power and size that you require. You can go through the reviews given on various sites on the internet and opt for a better product. Also, check whether the model is certified by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for quality.

Pinterest to pin your success in business

Pinterest is an online photo sharing website. There are image boards where users can pin their photos based on different themes. This website is considered as one of the top ten social sites available

 Pinterest for your business

Pinterest can not only be used to pin photos of your interest but also can pave a good way to promote your business. You can upload photos of your products and thus, attract more customers to your business. There are several ways by which you can use it to market your business

·         Upload attractive and eye catchy photos .For example, if you work in the field of fashion, you can pin beautiful photos of dresses or ornaments that you have designed.

·         Start various contests in Pinterest. There are contests like’ Pin to win’ available. You can ask the persons in your friends list to take part in the contest and also, offer exciting prizes in the contest. This is a good way to attract people to attend the contest.

·         There is an option in Pinterest, where other people can repin your images by clicking on the ‘pin it’ button. Encourage more and more people to repin your images.

·         Make sure you keep your Pinterest account active and always maintain the activities in it.

What is Pinterest’s value for business?

Pinterest is an image sharing website and researches say that people get motivated more quickly through visual advertisements than through verbal ads. It helps people to know and see a better image of your company and products.

Social media sites have a great influence on today’s customers. They search for new products and ideas and share it with others in the social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. Since Pinterest being a social media site, it also has a great chance of influencing people. Pinterest was started in 2010 and within such a short span of time, it has grown itself into a major photo sharing social media network. This itself shows how valuable Pinterest can become for your business.

The main advantages of using Pinterest for your business are

·         It gives your brand’s personality

·         Search engines will rank your website better

·         It will help to create backlinks to your website

·         You can connect to different types of markets

·         Your sales can be increased

·         Viral campaigns for your business can be improved

How to make a Pinterest account

In Pinterest, you can create two types of account – Personal and business account. Personal account is made by people who love to have some fun and would like to make friends and share photos with them. Business accounts are made by business people and companies in order to boost their sales and profit. Although, business and personal accounts appear similar, some features like the service agreement is different in the business account.

There is a ‘Request an invite’ button in the Pinterest page. You can create an account by clicking on it and giving your email address there. Then, you will be invited to open an account. You can also ask your friends who are already members of Pinterest to send you an invite. Once you receive the invite in your mail, you will be asked to click on a link. This link will take you to a page where you can sign in to Pinterest using your Facebook or Twitter email and password.

In Pinterest, there will be a visual grid containing various topics. Once you choose a topic, you can click on ‘Follow people’ button. Thus, you can start following other users and viewing their images.

Statistics

According to a study, the popular pinners’ activity was calculated to be 2757  pins, with 355 people following and 35 boards on an average.

83.4% pinners spend their time on Pinterest by pinning images, while 16% spend by liking others’ images and the rest 0.6% by commenting the images.

The popular pins and boards in Pinterest are based on these categories: Hair and beauty, food and drink, home décor etc.

Market your business through Pinterest

There are many ways to market your business through Pinterest

·         You have to spend time on Pinterest to make connections and friends. The more you spend browsing, the more benefit it does. This is a way to let your customers know about your product.

·         Make your account a simple one. People will be interested to check your profile only if it is simple. Complex profiles will not be liked by most of them. Try to put your link in your images.

·         Make sure that your pins match the categories in the popular pin boards like home decor or food and drink. People are more likely to search for popular categories. Also, this will increase your traffic.

·         Try to develop feeds from Twitter and Facebook because you can include your already made connections in those social networks also to Pinterest.

·         Try to categorize your pins and maintain a board.

·         Try to include products of other companies also, as this may help you to get a large number of followers.

User demographics

According to a study, the numbers of women who use Pinterest are 5 times to that of men on an average.

19% of people in the age group 18-29 and 30-49 use Pinterest, while 12% of people between 50-64 use it. And 4% of people above the age of 65 use Pinterest.

When 11% of undergraduate student use Pinterest, 16 – 20% of college going students use it.

The average percentage of people who use Pinterest based on their household income is:

·         Less than $30,000 per year – 10%.

·         Between $30,000 - $49,999 – 15%.

·         Between $50,000 - $74999 – 23%.

·         Above $75,000 – 18%.

13% of urban people use Pinterest, while 16% of suburban people use it and 18% of rural people use it.

Pinterest has grown very fast as a favorite photo sharing website for both small scale and branded businessmen.

Grant sources for your start up business

For any start up business, the prime requirement is financial support. The biggest challenge faced by start ups is the lack of adequate funding for their business. To fund such developing companies, a lot of schemes are available nowadays. But, the task is in finding out the correct and trustworthy source of financial assistance. There have been initiatives from the side of Government as well as private companies in providing grants for entrepreneurs to promote and develop the business sector. You have to understand about the criteria of different grant schemes before getting your hands on it.

There are certain sources of start up grant, where entrepreneurs depend before going in for an agency.
Ø  People try to sell or mortgage their property. This is the most common source that people opt when thinking about start up loans.
Ø  The second option people consider is to borrow money from a friend or relative who is close to you and has trust in you.
Ø  The person checks his credit and use a considerable amount of money from his savings for business.
Ø  People go for a firm or bank that provides business start up money. Different banks have different interest rates and sometimes also provide offers in their rates. A bank with a convenient rate can be chosen.
Ø  Get a loan from another business group. There are different features available like women’s loan etc for different companies.
Ø  There can be business start up programs which are often sponsored by Government. Taking part in such programs can help you in getting the initial grant for your business. An added advantage in such programs is that you can meet up with big business tycoons who will assist and mentor you about different business plans.
Ø  You can try to find investors for your business. It can be a difficult job, but can be a good source to get an initial capital.
Ø  Last but not the least; people opt for Govt or Non Govt organizations to get the grant.

How do the grants help entrepreneurs?
The different programs available for funding start ups are
Ø  Cash grants
Ø  Tax incentives
Ø  Debt financing
Ø  Government aided financing
Cash grants are provided by Govt. and Non-Govt. organizations and each has different terms and conditions. There are certain criteria for qualifying for this grant and the disbursement techniques vary for different organizations. Only a fixed percentage of cash grant will be provided. The owner has to make the rest of the money by himself.
Tax incentives or tax benefits are provided to start up companies depending on certain rules. This can be a motivation for the entrepreneur to start more and more business deals.
Debt financing is made available to the start up owner so that he can get a required amount without giving up his profit share. These debts must be correctly repaid by the owner, even if he makes a profit in his business or not. This can prove as a disadvantage of debt financing at times.
Govt. aided financing is given as an exchange for an ownership share in the startup company. This can be very helpful for a business during its initial period.
Many startups are coming up everyday like mushrooms. Only if proper funding is given to these companies, can the country achieve economic growth.

Where to look for grants?
Before applying for a grant, you have to do good research about the different sources of grants available and choose a perfect one for you that can help you for your business. Some of the sources are
Ø  Federal Domestic Assistance provides grants for business purposes. So, it is better that you go through its catalogue for a better detail about the different grants.
Ø  Government has its own website where you can find out about the grant schemes and apply for them.
Ø  Federal register is also a good source to know about various federal grants.
Ø  All agencies use FedBizOpps to let the public know about various contract details. So, they can act as a good source to check for grants.
Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) provides financing to small business start ups through various programs. It is an investment firm that is managed and owned privately. They provide finance for start ups and help to put in capital for venturing business firms. There are other private firms which help SBIC in finding out the seed money for providing such grants. Some of them are Apple computers and America online.
You can also opt private firms when choosing the grant. There are good private companies like Foundation Center and the Council on Foundations providing financial support for start up businessmen.

What are the stumbling blocks for getting a grant?
There are many troubles which can come your way while looking for a proper grant scheme for your start up business.
Ø  Start up loans can have very hectic procedures and formalities that you will have to undergo patiently. The formalities can change within states, counties or cities. You have to carefully read the conditions needed for the application for loans.
Ø  It is better if you consult with a franchiser about what schemes are good for your kind of business. Do find an approved lender in order to avoid risks of legality and interest rates.
Small business grants are sometimes extremely difficult to find. But, once you find a correct scheme, it is going to be a grand beginning for your business. There are firms that provide grants in demand of a quick return as well as those who provide it with a convenient repayment time. Business ventures that are at their early stage have ample opportunities available for getting a grant to boost their business. But, most of the time, it can be a hard job to find out a reliable and economic source from them.
Do some research based on the above tips while selecting a grant for your start up and make your business a grand success.