Review your business plan and implementation strategies. Look at what made your business a success in the past as well as the limiting factors your business encountered. Use this information to improve on your strategies.
Know your customers. Talk to regular customers to find out why they prefer the goods and/or services offered by your company to those of your competitors. After talking to several customers, you will notice a pattern in their preferences. Many of them tend to like the same things about your brand. It may be quick responsiveness of your business, your brand image or even the customer care service. Capitalize on this information by improving those aspects preferred by your customers.
Compare your business to that of your direct competitors. Look into the strategies adopted by your competitors. Identify what attracts customers to their businesses, how they produce their goods or how they offer their services. Looking at the menu of a restaurant can easily tell you its market niche. Looking into the production methods and costs undertaken by your competitors could help you identify the faults in your business. Lower production costs of the same product by your competitor are a clear indication of mismanagement of production resources.
Restructure your business plan to create room for the improvement of faults identified in Step 1. Carefully compare the resources and strategies required to compete on the same level with other businesses in the same field. Price and quality of products and services are often the key competitive fronts of any business.