Step 5: Competition: what does the market look like?

To survive as a CBO or social business you must be able to define your unique selling point: what makes you different from every other initiative? Therefore it is important to do market research. What are initiatives in your working-area, that could compete with your idea? And why is it successful or not?

In order to check out the environment, there are different external factors that you can take into account:

• Socio-economic trends (do people have the financial means to pay for your product, for example in case of a growing middle class)
• Cultural trends (how do people in society think about the topic of your project from a cultural perspective?)
• Technological trends (should it be an offline or online product/service and do you have the capacity to deliver that?)

• Similar projects & competition (serving the same target group, asking a lower or higher price)
• Needs and demands (how big is the market?)
• Stakeholders (what new stakeholders do you see?)

A market analysis can help you to identify trends in the market that you can anticipate on. Following you will find a download that enables you to map key trends & market trends related to your project. 

Market analysis