SolveYourProblem
Article Series:
Start
A Home Business
Your
Business Competition: Seeking Them Out
by Jeff Cohen
The best way to seek out your competitors
is to try and buy whatever product or service it is you’re
planning to sell. Enter your market as a customer, and find
out what options you have.
Where to Look
It might be tempting to just use a search engine and click
on the results that turn up, but you have to remember that
plenty of business still takes place off the Internet. You
should also make sure and pay attention to more traditional
methods of advertising, such as the yellow pages, or your local
newspaper. It’s worth cutting out and keeping any ads you find,
as they can be good to refer to when it’s time to start your
own marketing campaign. Your competition may already know what
terms, phrases or sentences sell the product or service well.
Do What They Do, But Differently
Notice that I said ‘differently’, not necessarily ‘better’.
Don’t assume that you will be able to improve on established
businesses if you’re doing the exact same thing as they are
– they may have years of experience, after all. What you’re
trying to do is distinguish yourself in the marketplace, so
that people who are looking for something specific in your
chosen industry will buy from you.
There are a number of time-tested ways of altering existing
products to make them succeed in the marketplace:
The Price-Quality
Line. You may find other businesses that
only offer a very high-quality service, and accordingly charge
a premium price – or you might find ones that only offer heavily-discounted
crap. Consider taking their products to the opposite end of
the market. If you can offer a product of only slightly worse
quality at half the price, then people will jump at it – and,
likewise, there are always people willing to pay more to get
the absolute best.
Provide
a Service. It is perfectly possible to sell products
of the exact same physical quality while providing a better
service. To the customer, quality and service are almost the
same thing. There are companies out there who can sell computer
software that their customers could practically get for free,
simply because the customers like to have the support services
that they get with their purchase.
Likewise, if service is all you do, then it should be pretty
simple to provide a more attentive and personal service than
your competitors can. ‘One-on-one business’ gives you a great
opportunity to become friendly with your customers, and that
is very often worth its weight in gold to them (and you).
Make it
Simpler. Many businesses offer great products, but
they’re pitching them to very technical customers. If you’re
an expert in your field, you will very often find that you
can build a great business simply by selling the same thing
as your competitors, but going to some trouble to explain and
market it to a wider section of the public. Anytime you start
using some new technology, the chances are that someone along
the way had to work out how to make it simpler. Few new technologies
or inventions come pre-packaged for consumer use.
Change
the Design. Make it smaller, or change the color, or
make it easier to open and fix. There are all sorts of ways
to subtly redesign a product and give it the bells and whistles
that customers will really appreciate. You might even be able
to buy products, modify them, and then sell them.
Build Alliances
Despite what the
word might lead you to think, you don’t always have to be
competitive with your competitors. You might find
that they have extra work sometimes that they wouldn’t mind
sending over to you, or you might find that the_y’re willing
to give you advice on starting up (if not for free, then perhaps
for nothing more than the cost of a few drinks!). Of course,
you shouldn’t go giving away all your secrets or giving them
any other advantage, but that doesn’t mean that you should
keep away. Pay special attention to any problems that they
say they’ve had in the past, or anything they do that seems
to sell especially well.
Believe it or not, your competitors can be your best allies
in this home business game, especially if they’re home business
owners themselves. Over time, your competitors might even become
your friends.
# # # # # SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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