Side Quests · Small missions. Real progress.
Time: 15–20 minutes | Cost: Free | You’ll need: A notes app or spreadsheet, and internet access to look up three competitors.
If you’ve never written down what your competitors actually offer, you’re guessing at your own positioning. This quest fixes that fast. You’ll pick three businesses that compete for the same customer you want, then lay out their price, their pitch, and their weak spot on one simple page. By the end, you’ll see a gap you can fill — something you can say or do differently starting this week.
Your mission: Research three real competitors in your space and build a one-page snapshot comparing their pricing, positioning, and shortfalls, so you can spot a clear opening for your own offer.
Steps
- Pick three real competitors. These should be businesses a potential customer might actually consider instead of you — not the biggest name in your industry nationally, but people or companies competing for the same local or niche audience. Search the terms a customer would use (the same search-test approach from a recent quest works well here) and pick three results that keep showing up.
- Create a simple table. Open a blank note or spreadsheet and set up columns: Business Name, What They Offer, Price (if visible), Their Main Pitch, and Obvious Gap. Keep rows short — a few words each, not paragraphs.
- Fill in what they offer and charge. Visit each competitor’s website, social profile, or marketplace listing. Note their core service or product, and any pricing they show publicly. If pricing isn’t listed, write “not public” — that’s useful information too, since it might mean customers have to ask, which creates friction you could remove.
- Capture their main pitch in one sentence. Read their homepage headline, bio, or top listing description. What are they promising? Speed? Luxury? Budget-friendly? Write it in your own words as one short phrase per competitor, like “fastest turnaround” or “premium, high-touch service.”
- Spot the gap and write your one-line difference. Look across all three rows. Is everyone vague about pricing? Slow to respond? Missing photos or reviews? Ignoring a certain customer type? Write one sentence naming the gap, then one sentence describing how you could fill it — this becomes raw material for your next headline, bio update, or price menu.
Quest complete when: You have a one-page comparison of three competitors with pricing, pitch, and gap noted for each, plus one written sentence describing how you’ll position yourself differently.
