Answer:
The first thing Tom should have done was to identify his top competitors.
Explanation:
Here are the following steps to carrying out competitors analysis:
2. Identify your Strengths and how they help you take advantage of your
Opportunities
3. Identify Threats and how your strengths would help you minimize them
4. Enumerate your weaknesses and how you'd combine your strenghts and opportunities presented by the competitors weaknesses to reduce them.
Cheers!