For small businesses, competition can be a source of stress and a constant thorn in your side. Many small businesses don’t view competition as an advantage – which it certainly can be if you allow it to.
Here are a few ways to reframe your mindset and see the advantages of competition for your small business.
No matter what industry your business is in, there is always room for innovation. The greater your competition, the more important it becomes for your business to be one of the leaders in innovation and new ideas in your industry and community.
It’s necessary to take innovation risks as a business faced with competition, and it can pay off in ways you’ve not even anticipated quite yet. It also doesn’t matter if you’re a startup, an entrepreneur or an established business, as it’s essential to continue innovating to keep up with the competition — or to remain ahead of them. Even if you’re a small business, innovation can set your business apart.
Competition also forces you to look at your own offerings with a critical eye to find ways you can improve the quality of the products or services you place in the market.
If you’re the founder of a service-related business, for instance, you may see the benefit of “value-added” services that go above and beyond what your competitors currently offer. For products, consider making improvements that might extend the usefulness of your products, the life of your products, or new ways to use your existing products that consumers might not have considered just yet.
To drive sales for your business and become more competitive in the marketplace, consider making your employees stakeholders in your business. At the very least, offer bonuses for excellence that drive them to perform well for your company.
The opportunity to move above and beyond standard wages can be highly motivating. When your employees are your stakeholders, they may impress you with their thoughts, ideas, and suggestions, which could give you a competitive advantage.
Make your customers deliriously happy with your service and products, and they’ll never need to look elsewhere. In these days of social media, in which people can air their grievances instantly and publicly, customer satisfaction has taken on new importance. This is the case for small businesses, especially.
Not only do you need to up your customer service game to avoid complaints, when possible, you also need to check out complaints made against competitors via social media and public review services to know how you can improve upon the missteps of your competition when it comes to customer service.
The bottom line is this: excellent customer service equals repeat customers for your business, whereas bad customer service can end a potentially profitable relationship before it begins.
It’s one thing to know your products or services inside and out. As the one who makes the product and provides the service, you should. However, to sell your products or services effectively, you need to understand the audience that buys it inside and out.
This is something that can be more difficult to do — unless you have a history with the audience for your product. Understanding your market isn’t impossible, however, if you take the time to get to know them.
Some ways to get to know your customers include:
The better you understand your market, the better you can serve it.
When McDonald’s first came into play, customers were awed by the efficiency with which the burger chain was able to deliver full meals with burgers, fries, and a soda. The restaurant utilized a never-before-seen system involving repetition to churn out fully dressed burgers of consistent quality at baffling rates. Now that the fast-food market has evolved and is filled with competition on every side, the same system is used in every McDonald’s around the world.
But some changes have been made over the years to improve upon the efficiency the restaurant has been so famous for, like adding self-order kiosks, allowing customers to make their own drinks in-store, and ordering ahead and paying via mobile phone apps.
The more competition McDonald’s faces, the more they were (and still are) forced to improve upon their already legendary efficiency.
Viewing competition as an advantage can completely change the trajectory of your business in the years ahead. Try using just a few of these amazing ideas and watch how quickly your business grows.
Sonu Shukla, CPA writes for CountingWorks, an accounting news and advice website. Reach his office at [email protected].
About Sonu Shukla, CPA, CFP
Sonu Shukla is a Certified Public Accountant as well as Certified Financial Planner. He believes in proactive tax planning and has the skills, education and experience to demonstrate passionately planned financial strategies. His firm tailors highly efficient tax plans for his small business clients, all in a one on one environment where he and the client can bounce ideas around until every detail is worked out. Located in Orlando, FL, he services all of Florida.
