It is necessary to do a competitor analysis. Because you may use their data to define your goals, marketing plans, tactics, new product lines, pricing, and more. Use competitor analysis to:
- Identify the strength and weakness of your life coaching business competitors.
- Search for opportunities to distinguish your life coaching business from competitors.
The first step is to determine who your direct and indirect competitors are.
The direct competitors consists of other life coaching businesses that offer essentially the same services to the same people as you do.
Indirect competitors are other life coaching options that people have in addition to direct competitors. The indirect competitors are other forms of therapy, yoga and other meditation techniques teachers, free self-help material, and self-help books.
Once you’ve identified the competition, concentrate on the direct, head-to-head competitors, since they are the most threatening to your life coaching business— but keep an eye on the indirect competition as well, just in case.
Provide an overview of each direct competitor’s business and detail their strengths and weaknesses.
You will be able to position yourself competitively in the market if you perform proper competition research. Perform a SWOT Analysis to learn your competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, and competitive advantages in the following areas:
- Prices – Are they offering cheaper life coaching services or more costly than you and other competitors, what value do buyers get for that price?
- Quality – Are they offering life advice backed with more experience? Is the perceived worth in the eyes of the customers high?
- Customer service – How they respond to their consumers, whether they treat them poorly or well, and the degrees of satisfaction customers show
- Reputation — The sum of everything mentioned above: their credibility, how loved the brand is, and the loyalty of their customers
The final section of your competitive analysis should include a list of your areas of competitive advantage. for example: Are you going to offer premium, therapeutic life coaching advice? Do you offer life coaching services and life advice that your competitors do not? Will you offer better pricing or will you offer greater customer support?
Consider how you will outperform your competitors and include them in this portion of your life coaching business plan.