Company check UK businesses for better competitor insights

When you do a company check on a UK company with Company Search MadeSimple, you get a large amount of information. This is fantastic if you’re looking for detail, and let’s face it – that’s where the devil is!

It’s mostly a concern if you are looking to do business, and if you’re an entrepreneur you’d hope that is a key ambition. One of the most useful aspects of company search is competitor insight. You can find your competitors and search for information that leads to good actionable insights.

There is nothing more important than insight drawn from accurate data when it comes to competitor analysis. It’s nothing short of essential. So when you do your own company check, what are the finer points that can help deliver better competitor insights?

What does data driven insight actually mean?

It might sound a little bit like ‘business speak’ but the phrase data driven insight means just that. It is insights (judgments, observations, understandings) that are driven (assisted, directed, informed) by data (information and facts).

It’s a roundabout way of saying that your insights, and the actions that lead from them, are based on solid facts that can be backed up with data. This ultimately means more successful competitor analysis. Working on a hunch and what you think a competitor might do is less effective in this case.

You might get lucky and have a hunch and be right. But with data it’s much more certain. That’s why it’s good. You wouldn’t want to add a product that you think a competitor was about to offer, in order to compete for some of their market share, only to find that they didn’t actually follow through in the end.

How does competitor analysis help my business?

Well, the short answer is that competitor analysis in and of itself does not actually help your business. What helps your business is the action you take after this competitor analysis has been done.

Does the data you’ve found suggest your competitors have a high credit rating and limit? If so it may suggest they are doing financially quite well or are well-funded, so you may resist competing with them directly if you are offering a similar service and focus on delivering a product that is more niche.

Alternatively, you may find that your competitors are struggling – so you may wish to compete more directly if you determine you have the financial clout needed to win out. It’s up to you, but the insight is nothing without the action. That’s how competitor analysis helps, it allows you to find those opportunities and act on them.

What can I learn from a company check?

We have a range of company search reports, these mean that you have a lot of options and levels of detail. So, you can learn a lot or a little depending on your needs. All of our reports include the following information

• Statutory Information – These are official company details like name, registration number, company status and type of accounts.
• Directory Information – This is basically contact details like trading address, phone number, SIC codes (details of the type of company) and other official details.
• Accounts Information – Here are included date of accounts filed, subsidiaries and audit comments where appropriate.
• Profit & Loss Information – These are details on turnover, pre-tax profit, taxation details and information on the number of employees.
• Balance Sheet Information – This covers things like total current assets, current liabilities and details on shareholders and funds.

This information is included in all reports and forms the ‘Snapshot’ report that gives you the information you need about a company in brief. If you want further details there are plenty of other reports that included more information. These include the following:

• Standard – More detailed than the Snapshot, this report gives you details on current credit rating and limit in addition to 3 years of accounts, directors personal details and event history.
• Fully Comprehensive – If you’ve got this type of report it is very detailed, it includes everything within the ‘Standard’ and ‘Snapshot’ reports in addition to details on group structure, 5 years of accounts information, mortgage summary and a Company Tracker which sends you alerts on changes for 1 year.

Company Trackers are very useful if you have a particularly significant competitor that you want to keep tabs on. There is also a Lifetime Company Tracker that means you don’t have to renew the tracker each year.

Company Check UK Businesses For Informed Insight

You can learn a lot from our reports, so when you company check UK businesses make sure you use that insight and translate it into good actions. It’s critical for your company to remain on top of what other businesses are doing, but also important are the actions that you take upon learning that.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to check out the rest of our blog, especially relevant to this post would be the ‘Company Report’ section.

By Alex Novakovic at MadeSimple – Follow Alex on Google+