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For every business, the marketplace is a signal of how well it is doing. Public confidence in your business, fuels investment and also, engagement by customers. When your brand is brought into disrepute, it can harm your standing in the eyes of customers and investors. Your marketplace being harmed, means you are not able to make strides in your business as you would like to. This is why keeping an eye on your marketplace is so valuable and why large companies pay risk professionals a lot of money to manage incidents that can damage their marketplace. So how should you, someone who owns a small business, keep their eyes on the marketplace?
Know your industry calendar
As a small business owner, you may not even know where to begin regarding your public standing. But, you can keep an eye out for external events in the industry calendar, to see how you are affected by events. For example, if you are a small car brand, a major brand like Mercedes or Tesla, releasing a new model will affect your brand too. Customers may look for something similar but more in their price range in other brands. People who want an electric car but can’t afford a Tesla, and yet are sold on the technology due to Tesla, will seek alternatives from other brands. This affects your marketplace value whether you like it or not. This is one way to keep tabs on the industry and your brand image in the public eye.
A changing market
One great way to always know how your industry is doing is by looking at the stock market. If stocks in your field of the profession are not doing so well this could be due to an opportunity or a risk that needs to be avoided. Using a Google Finance API on your website or workstation dashboard you can bring up information about stocks, bonds, investment news and how the sector is reacting to the world economy. It could be a great tool to use, when you are releasing news, and tracking how your stock goes up or down. Investor comments might also be something to be wary about, as investment firms and individuals that speak highly or cautiously about your industry could make a stock tumble or rally.
Insider talk
If you have a close friend or perhaps an associate who works in investment, stocks, the economical media, or perhaps in risk professional circles, you could ask them how you are faring in the eyes of the general public, investors and more.
Even if there’s nothing to be worried about, they could advise you on how to raise your public profile to get investors interested in giving you an injection or two. Having coffee every now and again with such professionals who understand markets is so valuable.
The marketplace is often volatile and even things you are not involved with can affect your standing. These are some ways you can keep tabs on the market and your standing in it.