Competition refers to other companies or sources that provide products, solutions or services similar to yours. While small businesses often consider competition to be the easy-to-identify businesses that appear to be competing directly for purchases from existing and potential customers (the store down the street), often "competition" can come from unidentified or unforseen sources: for instance, a new innovation that solves a problem related to your service or a new provider of the service online or in another location. Or, in many cases, "competition" can be in the form of such in-direct factors as apathy or other competition for the attention of your intended customer or client.
