September 18, 2012 8.00 am This story is over 147 months old

Understanding market share to grow your profit

Keeping competitive: Aimee Holland explains that you can grow your profit by understanding your share within the market.

— Aimee Holland formed Grow My Profit in 2011 to support local businesses in their development. The team has now grown to include fresh young talent and a qualified programmer so that they can offer both offline and online business solutions.

The world is still full of money, you just need to make more of it yours.

It’s easy to feel gloomy about the months ahead when we hear that the UK economy is flat or that growth has contracted. As small business we would be forgiven for thinking it might all come crashing down.

But the world is still full of money. Understanding your market share and then growing it can ensure you continue to grow even if others around you don’t.

Market share is one of the most powerful indicators of how well your company is performing against your competition. Market share is calculated on how much of the market your product or service you serve. Because of this, even if the market shrinks or expands, you still know how successful you are in the grand scheme of things.

Knowing where you are in the market means you also know where your competitors are. Who are your closest competitors really? Are you leading the market and need to stay ahead? Is there someone out there doing it differently and gaining more market share than you?

If you sell products or services to any public funded organisations the details of spend over £25,000 are available freely from www.data.gov.uk. Suppliers are listed so you can calculate your market share. It will also tell you how well your competitors are doing in that market place.

Whomever you sell to, understanding who makes up that market and how many of them choose you is a recession busting way of growing your profits. Learning from your competitors may not seem natural to many businesses but it is a way to grow. By staying ahead of others in your market, you can protect your business so long as the market exists.

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Aimee Holland formed Grow My Profit in 2011 to support local businesses in their development. The team has now grown to include fresh young talent and a qualified programmer so that they can offer both offline and online business solutions.