Assessing competitors

[eboniesmith]

I'm working closely with a small business development center to develop my business plan.  My counselor reminded me how important it was to assess my competition.  Who were they?  Where are they located?  What do they do good?  So, to start, I googled Bulk Vending+Chicago, IL.  I came up with a list of vending companies in Chicago.  So, that takes care of who they are and where they are located, but I know nothing about the companies because none of them have websites!  Where do I find the information that I need?

I hope I'm not 'flooding' the forum!  I promise this is my last post for today *crosses fingers* :cool:

[philo]

Unfortunately the barriers to entry in this business are very low. Hence anyone with the funds to buy a used vending machine is competition. So while it might be possible to get a handle on large companies, the hundreds of small competitiors will remain an unknown. A better way to handle the situation might be the availability of potential placement sites. In other words a market like Chicago might be saturated. Only way to know is to actually try and place machines.

 

Regards,

 

Philo

[Lee M]

Philo makes a good point. 

For any entrepreneurial person ... to get into the bulk vending business ... it really doesn't cost a whole lot.  One way to get a handle on the SMALL companies ... is to just walk around to various establishments ... looking for bulk vending machines, and see if they leave a sticker on the machine (identifying the owner possibly) ... as well as see which charity they are affiliated with ... (i.e. then you could call that charity and perhaps figure it out etc.)

Lee

[eboniesmith]

I have collected the telephone numbers of companies, but no one has, thus far, have any charity affiliation.  The online presence of vending companies in my area is almost nonexistent.  Thanks guys

[G-man422]

Ebonie, theres your niche!  Get a website up ASAP.  To be honest, all my competition comes from major national companies, so I have a little niche myself.  Mom and pop stores are the way to go for me.  Im sure in chicago it's the same way (I used to live in Lombard).  I say if your competitors don't think they need a website, then you don't have much to worry about (or they're too big to care, which again, leads me back to the "mom and pop" ideas).

[eboniesmith]

Exactly Gabe!  Thanks

[fastcat8]

I have collected the telephone numbers of companies, but no one has, thus far, have any charity affiliation.  The online presence of vending companies in my area is almost nonexistent.  Thanks guys

Here is what you need to know about your bulk competitors.

1. What machines are they using? You may want to use a different machine ... for instance I give out samples of gum and the people there know who gives them gum and which machine I own. Hopefully when they buy a piece it's from my machine.

2. What product do they sell? I started out with doubles putting MMP's and gumballs ... A large area vendor that does mainly MMP's didn't like like it too much. Plus it was overkill in the all the locations that we shared. So I had to go back through and change my MMP's or change to just gumball sin those locations.

3. What locations are they in? If they can get those locations, you can too ... although you want to try to get locations that you are the only one in.

4. What charity do they use? You might want to use a different charity than the other large vendors in your area. It's kind of silly to have two or three machines in a place all on the same charity.