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WEB INSIGHTS
Deciding on Whether to Start A Business

By Marc Kramer
"Web Sight"
marc@kramercommunications.com

With all of the lying by top management in companies like Enron, World Com and Adelphia Communications, which has resulted in massive layoffs and loss of retirement savings. Many of our readers are starting their own business. Before you take what is left of your money and start a new business, you should spend a lot of time researching the competition.

According to Jupiter Communications, a leading research company, only 20 to 30 percent of web sites show up on search engines. For those of you have read my column in the past, you know that looking for competitor information on search engines is difficult because the search engines don’t always list the top competitors at the top of a search or even with the right key words. There are cases where the competitor hasn’t tagged her site properly so he shows up on a search engine.

Venture capitalists and private investors are still receiving business plans on a daily basis. Entrepreneurs move so quickly and venture capitalists are so afraid to miss out on deals that the time from submission of a prospective deal is moving very quickly. You may have an idea today that isn’t being done and 30 to 60 days later there are three to four competitors each with substantial venture capital behind them.

With that said, there are four ways to enhance your competitive analysis search and they are as follows:

Venture Capital Web Sites: Venture capital web sites tell you what they will invest in and give you a list of companies they have invested in.

Private Investor Groups - Private investor groups bring together investors and entrepreneurs Media: There are magazines and television shows targeted towards helping entrepreneurs find funding. Internet Finance Sites - These are web sites dedicated to providing business news. Although these web sites might only be changed every 30 days, which in business years is comparable to one human year, you will get an idea of what people are working on and if you have the expertise, management team and concept that will allow you to succeed.

You can have the best idea, but if three or four companies have already launched and have raised money from experienced venture capitalists it will be very difficult to raise capital.

Successful ventures take a lot of financial support because of the marketing and technology cost involved. Before you waste a lot of time, money and energy do your homework.

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Please call Marc Kramer at 610-873-6978 or marc@kramercommunications.com.