The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is an indispensable resource for any American small business, window film companies included. If you haven’t done so already, register with the SBA community to begin your exploration of this near-limitless wealth of information, tools, and instruction.
One of the many tools available to small business owners at the SBA website is called SizeUp. At no cost to you, SizeUp provides an analysis of your business based upon data that you input – the age and annual revenues of your company, and number of employees and their average salaries. You’ll get a look at your company as it compares with other window film businesses in your area. SizeUp gives you the kind of market analysis that much bigger businesses either are able to generate in-house, or have to pay marketing consultants hefty sums to research and produce.
The creator of SizeUp has donated the license for the tool to the SBA for use by businesses like yours. (In a press release, the SBA has stated that its acceptance of SizeUp is not an endorsement of the SizeUp makers’ opinions, products or services.) Whether you access SizeUp at the SBA website or go directly to the SizeUp site, you’ll only get complete reporting when you register as a user on the site you choose.
Once you’ve logged on, you’ll see that SizeUp analyzes business data that’s relevant to you and presents it in three key ways:
It benchmarks your company against the performance of other similar businesses, both local and national, using criteria such as annual revenue, number of employees, employee salaries, and the cost-effectiveness of employing those people.
It maps your area and your competitors, and at the same time shows you where potential customers and suppliers are likely to be located.
It finds the locations your advertising dollar might best be spent, based on metrics like underserved markets, household income, and revenue per capita for the window film industry.
SizeUp allows you the kind of “view from 30,000 feet” that can be a kick-start to strategic planning for your business. Or, you can simply use it as a reality check on the competitive aspect of the environment you work in, how the wages you pay stack up in the industry, or any of numerous other factors that drive the growth of your company. It’s free, and it only takes a few minutes of your time to get started. Take a little time to try SizeUp; you’re likely to learn something useful about your industry, your marketplace, and your company.
