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Mastering Your Industry: Competitors, Products, & Suppliers (Udemy.com)

A detailed plan to discovering competitors, products, suppliers in your industry to help grow your business.

Created by: The Main Street Entrepreneur

Last updated January 2017

Our take

Based on the ratings of 11,465 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in January 2017. No course pays to be reviewed.

This is a very short course: 48 minutes across 23 lectures and six sections. It covers industry characteristics, competitive rivalry, suppliers, customers and substitute products, with videos from professors and entrepreneurs plus PDF exercises to apply to a real business. The Main Street Entrepreneur team says it has interviewed business builders since 1994, and the material reads like an overview for someone starting out or sizing up a market for the first time, not a deep strategy class.

Reviewers mostly like it. They describe the teaching as clear and easy to follow, with examples and scenarios, and several single out hearing from people who actually run businesses. A 4.5 rating from 11,465 reviews backs that up, with most of them four or five stars. The complaints are consistent too. Two reviewers say the quizzes are pointless because every answer is true. Others wanted a case study to work through, or a more structured framework, and one says it needs updating for current market trends.

The last update was January 2017, so some of it is dated, and nothing here goes deep. It is a paid course, but it costs little time. It works as a quick refresher or a starting checklist for thinking about rivals and suppliers. Anyone who needs real market research or current data should look elsewhere.

Best forNew or small-business owners who want a quick checklist for sizing up rivals and suppliers.
Skip it ifYou want hands-on case studies or up-to-date market trends, not a short interview-style overview.

Pros

  • Short enough to finish in one sitting, at 48 minutes over 23 lectures
  • Interviews with working entrepreneurs give real-world examples, reviewers say
  • Covers rivals, suppliers, customers and substitutes in a clear five-part structure
  • PDF exercises let learners apply the material to their own business

Cons

  • Quizzes are too easy, with reviewers saying every answer is true
  • Last updated in 2017, so market examples feel dated
  • Thin on depth: reviewers ask for a case study and a more structured framework
Great to hear from experts that are actually in the business
Jesus Alonso Aparicio Navarrete, a student

All Levels fits beginners and managers alike; nothing is needed beyond downloading the PDFs.

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What you will learn

  • Demonstrate your industry knowledge.
  • Describe the general characteristics of your industry.
  • Evaluate your competition's strengths and weaknesses.
  • Identify potential suppliers to meet your business needs.
  • Understand channels of distribution and target markets.

Course content

6 sections · 23 lectures · 46 min of video 5 quizzes, 15 articles

  1. 1Gaining Industry Knowledge 3 free previews6 lectures · 11 min
  2. 2Industry Characteristics 1 free preview4 lectures · 1 quiz · 11 min
  3. 3Competitive Rivalry5 lectures · 1 quiz · 12 min
  4. 4Influence of Suppliers2 lectures · 1 quiz · 2 min
  5. 5Nature of Customers3 lectures · 1 quiz · 9 min
  6. 6Substitute Products3 lectures · 1 quiz · 1 min

Who it is for

The instructor says it suits

  • Entrepreneurs
  • Managers
  • Executives
  • Students
  • Employees looking to further their knowledge

What you need before you start

  • Download the PDF files to complete certain sections of the course

How it compares

Against the other 150 rated Udemy courses in Entrepreneurship on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.5 out of 5higher than 48% of them
  • Reviews11,465#3 of 151 by number of reviews
  • Length0.8 hoursshorter than 96% of them
  • Last updatedJanuary 2017earlier than 93% of them

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Course Description

It is important to develop a solid understanding of your industry. This includes who your competitors are, what products they offer, who your suppliers are, and possible areas for growth. This course walks you through each of these variables and how they impact your business.

This course provides videos from professors and real-world entrepreneurs who have built their own successful businesses, PDF downloads of exercises to complete for your own business, and topic evaluations to see where you stand in your industry knowledge.

The course curriculum is divided into six sections consisting of a general introduction called "Gaining Industry Knowledge" which discusses the importance of why you should be familiar with the different areas of your industry. The introduction is followed by five sections which discuss more in-depth topics to help you understand your industry to give you a competitive advantage. The sections include: Industry Characteristics, Competitive Rivalry, Influence of Suppliers, Nature of Customers, and Substitute Products.

This course was developed for anyone looking to start a new business, entrepreneurs growing an existing business, or anyone looking to refresh their knowledge of the industry they are currently in.

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Instructor Details

The Main Street Entrepreneur

Since 1994, we have been meeting with and interviewing successful business builders. We have toured their facilities, met with their employees, observed their behavior, and recorded their stories. Our fieldwork has uncovered the critical practices successful entrepreneurs use to start and build thriving companies. When these practices are used in a new and growing venture, the probability of success goes up dramatically; when these practices are absent, the probability of failure is high. Our entrepreneurial training programs will teach you how to implement these critical practices in your own business. By mastering these concepts, you will greatly improve your odds for success.

Our team is comprised of individuals with extensive experience as entrepreneurs, business consultants and university professors. We also have an in-house film department that has interviewed and filmed hundreds of entrepreneurs around the world.

At The Main Street Entrepreneur, our mission is to provide the most innovative and engaging resources available to help aspiring entrepreneurs and business builders create successful ventures. We help turn ideas into opportunities, opportunities into business models, and business models into thriving organizations. While doing so we pledge to maintain values of exemplary leadership, continuous improvement, distinguishing service, excellent efficiency, total integrity, and a broader contribution.

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Reviews

4.5

11,465 ratings on Udemy

Select a bar to show only those reviews.Select the bar again to show every rating.

By Sudhakar Mylavarapu on 7/20/2026

Excellent and easy understanding of the course material with examples and scenarios

By Dhinu Guri on 6/22/2026

Good Information, gained some knowledge about competitors, Products and supplies.

By Mohammad Beejady on 5/5/2026

All the quiz had answers as True, change this as people will simply finish all quizzes easily

By Shwetha M on 5/4/2026

Good to understand and learn from so many people through their experience.

By Xdssales on 4/23/2026

It was very refreshing and insightful. A found a few reminders on key factors relating to the title very useful.

By Sanjoy Gupta on 4/22/2026

I expected lot more structured and framework based sequential approach. It is not very difficult to get those from ChatGpt and Gemini of the world

By Madara Wijesinghe on 4/19/2026

earning this course was a valuable experience for me, as it helped me gain a broader and more practical understanding of how the business environment operates. Before this course, my knowledge about competitors, products, and suppliers was mostly limited to surface-level information. Through this learning, I was able to connect these elements and understand how they directly impact business decisions and performance.

By Pankaj Malik on 2/23/2026

Course is designed in user friendly manner and assessments designs perfectly to check knowledge attained.

By Jesus Alonso Aparicio Navarrete on 12/31/2025

Great to hear from experts that are actually in the business

By Galatea Lanza on 11/24/2025

I think this course is very important to every producer and gives a lot of good information to rise your products or to understand the market.

By Aman Khurana on 11/15/2020

Nice

By Jackylou M Villanueva on 11/8/2020

Not a single second waste on this course!

Showing 12 of 66 reviews

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Quality Score

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Overall Score : 90 / 100