Competitive Advantage

Napoleon Hill told a story in the book "Think and Grow Rich".

He told of a long time ago, when a great warrior was faced with a situation where it was necessary for him to make a decision which will ensure his success on the battlefield.

He was about to send his army against a powerful enemy whose men outnumbered his own. He loaded his soldiers into ships, sailed to the enemy's country, unloaded the soldiers and equipments, then he gave a order to burn the ships that had carried them there.

Then addressing his men before the battle began, he said, "You see the boats going up in flames. That means that we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice. We win or we perish." As it was told, they won.

Our case as entrepreneurs is much like this story, we either succeed in our business or we perish. One of those factors that "kill" businesses is the COMPETITION.

It will not matter how good you are if your competitor is better, so you need to find out what your competitor is offering. Find out your competitor's advantage over you and how she goes about it.

Everyone has competitors. Do you know yours?

You will need a visit to your competitor to have a deep feel of her offer. You need to understand what gives her an edge over you. It's probably just customer service, a better knowledge of the product or service, promo given to customers etc.

You can achieve this by paying a visit to your competitor as a potential customer. You can order for the service or product being provided and then you can criticize or make a complaint as a customer to see how they respond.

Sometimes it's about a visit to their online store or website to rake in ideas that will eventually work for you.

Sometimes, you could even ask directly if you have relationship with your competitor.

If the idea works, you can replicate it in your own business.

Now you must learn to focus on your own advantage eventually.

There is something that other business is doing that you are not doing, locate it and focus on it.

Some people tend to get jealous of big businesses and wish they fold them.

Recently, the NCC wanted to force communication giants to have a high data rate. That means that data we used to buy for #1,000 might now go for #2,500. They claimed they want to do that so that small businesses can have a chance to succeed.

Small businesses fail to compete against bigger firms because they want to compete with the bigger firm on what the big firm is known for. They do not have to do that, they will continue to fail if they do that.

It's not about wishing the big company folds up, it's about you focusing on what you can do to beat them.

There are things the big firms have as advantage over the small firms; same goes to the small firms over the big firms.

For example, the big business can run a TV commercial but a small firm cannot. However, a small firm owner is close to his customers in a way big firms cannot try.

Find what gives you advantage and FOCUS.


 By Tade Ayodele


Article Source:  Competitive Advantage