4 Ways to Deal With Competitors

If you find yourself in the thick of competition, with everyone elbowing each other and scrambling to be the front runner and while you may wish competition would just go away already, having competition is actually good for business. Competition forces you to give your best. Having that challenger right on your heels pushes you to run faster, work harder and think deeper. You can also learn plenty from the successes and failures of a worthy adversary. Plus, competition just makes the game more interesting and a whole lot more fun. So don’t be afraid of competition, ust learn to deal with it in an advantageous way. Here are a few pointers: 1. Don’t be a copycat. Your competition may have a bigger budget and hundreds of employees, but don’t dwell on that. They don’t have your passion or your know-how. They have nothing on your experience and the lessons you’ve learned. Just focus on your competitive advantage which may be your secret sauce. 2. Dont’ ignore the competition. What if a rival company created a product that is similar to yours and you try not to be concerned, because you are leader in a particular niche. You decided to ignored your competition, assuming that your customers would clearly see the difference in quality, However, when you start to lose business to the competitor, you discover their product actually looked better than yours. The lesson is, do not ignored the competition at your own peril. Get busy and freshen up the appearance of your product and step up your marketing efforts... it is about time you get ahead once again. 3. Don’t underestimate the competition. Competitors may come in different shapes and sizes, but they have one thing in common, they all want to beat you. You may lose sleep over bigger competitors with their impressive cash flow, customer base and power, but smaller competitors can actually pose a bigger threat. Large companies can get tripped up in their own bureaucracy, but startups are nimble, can move fast and operate under the radar. Since their survival is on the line, they may take big risks and cut corners. Don’t underestimate your competitors, especially the little guys. In business, you can’t make the competition disappear completely, but that’s alright. Accept the challenge- you will have a stronger business because of it.