4 Ways to Compete with Top Competitors

Four Ways to Compete with the Big Boys if You’re Just Starting Out

There are many challenges a business is facing when it’s just starting up. But one of the hardest things to do is dealing with the competition, due to the fact that some of your adversaries are gigantic companies that are already well established and basically swimming in money. This means that your business needs to be faster, better and incredibly flexible in order to thrive in a world that doesn’t usually favor the underdog.
It may sound like an impossible task, but the truth is that a new business can, in fact, run with the big boys. Here are some guidelines that can help you achieve just that:

Know who you are

When you’re just starting out a business there are a few key elements you can’t do without. First of all, it takes a lot of knowledge and a great deal of courage. Nobody goes into this world unprepared or by skipping the essential steps in creating what should be a long lasting company.

But in order to compete against the big boys you need to be extremely focused and to come up with the best strategies that will help you create a brand that will draw the attention of your potential customers. Having a clear image of who you are and who your customers is a crucial step on the road to success. You need to identify your niche, that particular feature that differentiates you from others, something that you can do better than your competition.

Create a tailored customer experience

Let’s consider this scenario: you’re just starting your own business and you’ve found yourself in a market that is ruled by titans (like Amazon). Distinguishing yourself may seem like an impossible dream, but in reality, competing with a large company can actually help you develop a competitive edge, by identifying what your customers need and offering personalized solutions. Big corporations often lack exactly that – a human touch, and people get the feeling that they’re dealing with a bunch of bureaucrats and chatbots instead of real people who care about their needs.

Focusing on the buyers means that you’re constantly looking for new ways to engage and convince your clients that you are offering the best solutions for their needs. No matter who you’re competing with – Wal-Mart or even cheap Chinese imports – you must find a way to make your business stand out from the crowd. Being customer-centric is a must for any new business that wants to establish itself as being unique and reliable. This may seem difficult to do at the beginning, but there is no other way to gain customer loyalty than by offering them a special experience that is also convenient, easy and pleasurable.

Make your customers trust you by offering them personalized messages and by being a company that values communications to a great extent. You need to make it clear to your customers that you’re offering more than just cheap mass-made products – make them understand that you’re offering originality by caring about what you’re selling and by asking for constant feedback from them. Having a connection with your customers leads to understanding their behavior and helps build long-lasting relations, which will also ensure some serious growth.

Of course, this could be taken even further, with actual custom manufacturing, according to client’s needs and desires. For small businesses, it’s infinitely easier to adapt to a customer order placed by one of the customers, than it is for a mass production facility in China which only has one task: to pump out a single product, as much as possible, as fast as possible. Use this as an advantage over them, since this is your unique selling proposition right here.

Be flexible and innovative

A small business has its benefits – for example, unlike a bigger company, a small business can be flexible without major disruptions. This means that you are in a better position to take risks; being smaller means you’re more agile – you can easily innovate, change direction if you have to and find new solutions if you’re facing obstacles or if you’re confronted with a crisis.

This huge competitive advantage gives you the opportunity to respond better to newer trends and to remove products or services that don’t perform well. If you maintain your ability to be flexible and agile you are ready to take on any new opportunity, which helps you stay productive and continue to grow constantly.

A smaller business does not, by all means, imply that it is a less successful business. It takes guts, dedication and a very powerful strategy, but competing with bigger companies is not impossible. You need to focus on what differentiates your company and capitalize on the advantages of being a small business. Don’t forget that being able to compete is what makes a successful
Entrepreneur.

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