Annual Credit Report For A Better Look At The Competition?
When you’re a business, you’ve got to think about your competitors. Even if you’re the most dominant force in your market, it’s always important to get a look at the competition and make sure that you’ve created the ideal conditions for keeping your company on the front foot.
It’s also about protecting yourself, a bad business decision means that you might find yourself with a range of problems – one of which being your competition getting ahead of you. Getting an annual credit report on partners of suppliers is a good way to get a handle on your own associates – but getting a report on competitors is useful as well.
There are many benefits to getting an annual credit report on partners or suppliers including checking reliability – but what are the benefits of an annual credit report for your competitors?
Why Do Annual Credit Reports Work?
Company searches are very useful, and credit reports work very well for competitor analysis. They work for a range of reasons but the most important ones include the following:
Credit Rating – Doing a search on a company’s credit rating will yield valuable insights into how a competitor is viewed by external creditors. Creditors are very stringent in their checks, so the rating of a competitor is a good indicator of how they are faring financially.
Credit Limit – Looking at the rating is a good indicator of how likely and able a competitor is to pay back money they borrow, but the limit is a good indicator of how much they can borrow. If they can borrow a lot, they could potentially make a big move and expand using their borrowing capabilities – which are great information to have.
Accounts – You can get detailed information on any filed accounts with an annual credit report, including information on turnover, gross profit, wages, total assets, total liabilities and number of employees. This is fantastic for a detailed assessment of your competitors’ financial strength.
The report can be done at any time, but it’s often prudent to keep the period of competitor analysis regular. Whether that’s quarterly, annually or biannually – or monthly if you need – it’s dependent on your business.
Company Trackers For Live Competitor Analysis
People running businesses sometimes find that they have some quite important competitors, so you could even find that you want to know about a change in a rival business as soon as it happens. Using a company tracker is useful for this, as you will receive automated alerts on any changes in the company.
This is useful as it means you are informed of the latest developments as soon as they happen, and can react accordingly as a business yourself – as opposed to waiting until the next time you run an annual credit report. It’s a more reactive approach and can prove very useful.
Scoping Out The Competition
Your business functions better if it is better informed. Having all the details you need is an essential component of business intelligence. Annual credit reports, as well as company searches in general are a clear asset for the healthier functioning of a business.
