A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others. Ayn Rand
Quit trying to beat your competitors. You won’t win.
I’ve written other posts on the topic of competing on price. When you compete on price you are in a race for the bottom. You also are giving up money directly from your pocket. The reason this is true is because when you give a discount, your employees are not working for less, your suppliers are not giving you a better deal, the only person accepting less money is you. You will not win in a price war.
So how do you win?
Become creative. Look at your business from an entirely different angle. We have heard recently that we all have to “niche down”. We all need to become “laser focused”. OK. I’ll agree on this level, when you are advertising online it is best to have a narrow focus. Part of that is because your customers have started to search complete sentences in Google. Therefore, customers are focused, you need to be focused, too.
However… in the real world of business it’s not the internet. You need to look at your business in a much broader focus. What is it you are doing right now and how do you message it? Is there a better message? I love the example of Playboy Magazine that I watched on a documentary. When they changed their marketing focus from a magazine to an entertainment business it allowed the company to move into DVD’s and other formats.
Corn Mazes are another example of creativity in your business focus. The farm that once focused on corn now welcomes guests. I met an entrepreneur that started a corn maze at their family farm, then started designing mazes for other farmers, now sells the management programs to run a maze. They recently started bottling wine. They use peaches they cannot sell because of quality and would normal throw away and re-purposed into a wine and tasting room. They initially thought that visitors to the corn maze would buy the wine… but that’s not the case, it’s an entirely different market.
Again, focus your advertising and promotion online to a niche, but continue to look at your business with a large unlimited horizon. Also… if you really want to understand the concept of competing on the creative plain, read Wallace Wattles book, “The Science of Getting Rich” – it’s outstanding.
PS: if you love, love, love my post… give it a “like”!
Action Step
1- Stop and step back from your business. How can you capture more sales? Can you capture a different audience? Use the farm as your guide. Could you demonstrate your product, assemble it, package it differently and create a new profit center?
2- If you have a new use or creative angle… I want to hear about it! Share the example on our app… it’s free! (SmallBusinessClubApp.com)
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A- Install our Free App (SmallBusinessClubApp.com –Apple or Android )
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Listen to Episode #87 of the Two Minute Commute audio blog Podcast
