5th step for a successful restaurant / pub – Competitors

Almost every business in the world has competitors, and chances are you do too. In this step your job will be to get as many information about them as you can, this is essential for the next step.

There are three different types of competitors:

Direct Competitors

Direct competitors are restaurants and pubs that do the same thing as you, are in the same market, are close to your business (in the same city) and target the same audience. For example, if you have a vegetarian restaurant, you are in direct competition with every other vegetarian restaurant in town.

Indirect Competitors

They are still restaurants and pubs, still in the same market, still close to your business, but offering a completely different value proposition. For example, for a vegetarian restaurant, a Chinese restaurant is an indirect competitor.

Replacement Competitors

In this case, we are not talking about restaurants or pubs, there are other small and large companies that are more or less perfect for customers to replace you. Think of buffets, hotdog vans, home delivery services, shopping centers, etc.

Now that you know how to categories your competitors, the next step is to find them and get to know them. Finding them is the easiest, but it’s not enough, you have to go there and check them out one by one. Take a notebook, go to your competitors, sit down, then have a drink and a meal, taking notes of every positive and negative impression. These will be your impressions, which may or may not be correct, and you can easily be influenced by the fact that you are at one of your competitors. Even if your conclusions are not one hundred percent realistic, it is still important to see your competitors with your own eyes. 

It may be difficult and it may be time-consuming, but it is still not the end of the story. The next and last sub-step is to check and ask people about your competitors. You can check the online reviews of them without investing too much effort, but it’s better to be able to talk about them with real peoples as well. You can ask your friends, your neighbors, people on the street, even people sitting at your competitors’ tables, etc. Don’t be aggressive, don’t try to convince them of anything, in fact, it’s even better at this point not to talk about your business at all, only about your competitors, and make a note of every single positive and negative opinion.

Once you have successfully completed the tasks described above, you will have a clear idea of the market offer. In the next step, you will use the data collected to make better business decisions.

Have a nice day, see you in the next step.