How to Beat Your Competitors in Business

Starting a business is not something that can be done in isolation. You can’t simply launch your business and then not pay attention to what is happening all around you, because some of it will have a direct impact on what you are doing and how successful you can be. One of these things will be your competition. If you don’t pay attention to your competitors, you’ll never see just how well they are doing and what they are doing in comparison to you, and this is a crucial part of running a business.

Once you do start to take note of what your competition is doing, you will need to do something about it; you want to be the business that people come to first, over and above anyone else offering a similar product or service. Here, then, are some useful tips about beating your business competition.

 

Show Your Difference

With so many people having the chance to open up their own businesses, there is going to be some overlap between them. It is virtually impossible to have an entirely unique business, no matter how hard you try.

Despite that, there will be some parts of your business that are unique to you, and it is these parts that you need to focus on, whatever they may be. It could be you, for example, that makes the difference – you might have a huge amount of experience, or be excellent at customer service, or be able to use your MBA from Redlands University Online to great effect. Perhaps it’s your services, or your pricing. Maybe it’s your aftersales care. Whatever it is, you need to show this difference and make the most of it to get ahead of your competition.

 

Find a Mentor

If you haven’t yet taken the next step to find a business mentor, then it is time you did; having a mentor really can boost your business, and can certainly put you ahead of your competition if they don’t have a mentor themselves.

A mentor is a hugely positive asset for your business. It’s isolating when you run a business, and even more so if you are the only one working there, so having someone to ask questions to and bounce ideas off is important. They can steer you in the right direction and can stop you from making potentially costly mistakes. The choices are still yours in the end, but a mentor’s advice really can help.

 

Be the Expert

If you have a choice of buying something from the absolute expert in the field, or from someone who couldn’t prove their expertise, what would you do? Most people would plump for the expert because buying from someone who really does know what they are talking about gives the purchaser confidence that they are buying the right thing. They might even be happy to pay a little more than they would with a competitor because of the peace of mind that buying from an expert would bring.

So, of course, it pays to position yourself as that expert. You’ll beat the competition and gain more business this way.

In order to show that you are the expert, you can:

• Write a blog
• Give talks
• Offer advice
• Make videos
• Answer online questions
• Be interviewed by local media

Once you have done this, and can be confident in your abilities, people will want to buy from you.

 

 

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of The World Financial Review.