Running a smaller business, it’s easy to find yourself out-spent by the bigger fish in the pond. But you wouldn’t be the first one to face the barrier of established competition, nor would you be the first to rise up, find success and even beat them at your own game. When facing serious competition, where they have power, you’re going to have to use smarts. Here are a few strategies worth employing to punch well above your weight.
Check what the enemy is doing. You don’t want to copy your competition because they will most likely be able to beat you by virtue of a bigger budget. However, you do want to do a bit of tech-savvy spying. We’re not talking about corporate espionage, but simply keeping an eye on the market as well as the marketing and services that your competition is providing. You can find and adapt elements that work without copying and pasting them completely. But even better is finding the elements of the business they’re not focusing on as much. By finding a niche, you can catch the customers that they’re missing, giving yourself a strong base to keep growing from.
Protect your idea. So, after the above step, you’ve hopefully found a niche of the market all to yourself. That niche is better defined through your branding and your ideas. They are your identity and what can help you fill the cracks that your competition is leaving open. But they’re vulnerable to being taken and used by others if you’re not protecting them. Whether it’s the bigger competition trying to stamp you out or new businesses trying to copycat you by using your hard-won ideas. You can’t let any of them succeed. You should consider getting in touch with trademark consultants to make sure your intellectual property isn’t vulnerable to being stolen. If it is, it does damage to your brand and could even disqualify you from using your own intellectual property.
Focus on pleasing two people alone. Pleasing your customers is naturally important. Your customer service, marketing, and the delivery of your product and service is all about that. But you can’t forget about that other group you rely on: your team. Get your team on board by investing in them as much as they’re investing their efforts in the business. Develop and employer them by training them in new skills or offering them new responsibilities. Communicate your strategies with them and ensure they understand the core value or ethic at the heart of the business. Get them engaged by asking them to strategize with you and offer their own input. Without strengthening the team to support you, they might only consider a smaller business as a step up before they shift to the ‘big leagues’. You can’t have that.
The key to all of the strategies above is finding and demonstrating the unique value of your business. Protecting it, differentiating it from your competition and make it clear to both your team and your customers is vital. Don’t be afraid to have a core ideal or value that makes you stand out. It’s your greatest weapon and your strongest defense.
Mia Guerra
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