Research Guides: MSA 699 Feasibility Study Resources: Competition

Why Do I Need To Know My Business' Competition?

The level of competition a business will face is important in determining its feasibility:

Is the potential market saturated with similar products or services?
Will the competition come from independent merchants or national chains or both?
What does the lack of competition say about the market?

Use the following resources to locate information on potential competitors by industry, by company, and by location.

Look up your industry to see who the top companies are, and therefore your main competition.

Industry Center
From Yahoo! Finance, select an industry to see its top performers.

Look up key companies in your industry to see their top competitors, who will also be YOUR top competitors.

MergentOnline This link opens in a new window
Covers 10,000 national and international public companies. Includes business profiles, stock & bond information, financial statements, annual reports, SEC filings, competitors and executive/officer information
PrivCo This link opens in a new window
Provides business, financial and revenue data on major, non-publicly traded corporations, including family owned, private equity owned, venture backed, and international unlisted companies. Contains information on private M&A deals and deal multiples, private firm valuations, VC funding, and private equity deal history.
Nexis Dossier (Formerly: Corporate Affiliations) This link opens in a new window
Dossier allows you full access to Financial Overviews of over 240M companies, worldwide.