Out-track your competition.

No matter what your business is, you have competition. I tried to tell my web site designer the other day that I did not have 'direct' competitors, and he giggled. He was right. We all do, in one sense of another. The paradox here is that as a group, we are pretty weak when it comes to tracking them. Too bad really, given how much we can learn from them.

Ironically, while for the most part the average SMB (and some Enterprises) don't do their homework regularly on their rivals, it has never been so easy as today to see what our competitors are up to. You can watch them all day long if you want to (services like Watch360 will do this for you). Imagine for a moment what it was like to research your enemies before the days of the web. Certainly could not do it overnight.

Why the sudden talk about competition? I bumped into an interesting company and offering today - RivalMap. Web-based management of your competition, their news, their strengths and weaknesses, all inside a nicely laid-out 2.0 set of tools. One thing I especially like: It encourages all facets of an organization to get involved. Sales, marketing but also R&D. You'll like it too if you've ever tried to encourage a set of features out of your colleagues across the hall.

RivalMap is worth a look.