Find Your Own Way of Doing Things
Just because your direct competitor is doing things a certain way, doesn’t mean you have to do it exactly like them.
More importantly, just because someone’s business failed doesn’t mean yours will either.
On the flip side, just because someone is succeeding exponentially, doesn’t mean you will have a similar success to them.
More than ever, turn your focus inward by perfecting your craft. Entrepreneur.com states it poignantly:
“Focus on the value that you, your product or your service brings to the industry. Spend time listening to what your loyal customers and clients are saying so that you can consistently perfect what you do. Focus on innovative marketing strategies, closing sales, satisfaction guarantees, and new business outreach.”
When you’re at your low moments, step away from outside stimulation, especially social media. Because what is put out there on people’s Facebook and Instagram is all a front, you don’t know exactly what is going on behind the scenes.
And conversely, those on social media don’t know exactly what’s going on behind the scenes with you either.
Take your wins, take your losses, learn all you can, and find what works for you.
Hone Your Strengths and Weaknesses
The competitive edge can help you, but somedays, it’s easy to get down on yourself when you see other companies seeming to make the gains that you’re desperately trying to make.
By honing in on your strengths and weaknesses, you are essentially comparing yourself to yourself. You can be your own competition.
Take some time every week or every month to see the growth that you’ve made. See where things are going great and where things need to be improved. Reward yourself and your team for a job well done, even if it wasn’t necessarily the results you were hoping for.
Every new day is a clean slate to keep climbing upward and to keep striving.
Also, here’s something to remember in whatever you do when it comes to perspective of comparison –
There will always be someone better than you, and there will always be someone worse than you.
It’s just a fact of life.
It doesn’t mean that the person better than you or worse than you are no less worthy of success. Again, each person in their field is always striving for higher, knowing that there are people who are better or worse than them.
It’s the beauty of living and growing.
We’re not saying it’s easy to avoid comparison altogether. But if these comparisons are detrimental to your own sense of self, it’s important to remember that the only thing you can control in your life is how you decide to live your life.
You can’t control how others do.
You can’t even control how you will eventually do.
You can only control the choice to put you and your business out there by getting 1% better everyday and not worry or become obsessed with how your competition is doing.
But if you do, know it’s for a good cause. If everyone is taking the time to be 1% better everyday with continuous improvement, the healthy competition that arises benefits the market towards growth and innovation.
Only Compare in Terms of Metrics and What the Market Needs
In regards to healthy business growth, it’s important to compare your business to others. But the way to compare effectively when it comes to business is to approach comparison from a different angle.
If you are going to compare yourself AT ALL, it’s for competitive research. Because direct comparison can be emotional at times, a logical comparison is crucial. Plus, it will only help you understand what is going on historically and currently within your business niche.
Remember to ONLY make logical comparison. This will only help your business grow. It’s nothing to feel discouraged by.
There are tools and simple google searches to see what your competitor is doing and how they are doing it. If you want that competitive edge without feeling like a failure, then use this perspective of comparison as a means to try experimenting with what works and what doesn’t. These analytics can give you key insight in what you need to do for your own business.
And the analytics could change in a blink of an eye. So, it’s important to adapt constantly.
The bridges to success happen because you keep building those bridges. Each marketing strategy, business resources, business outreach, and real time practice with competitive baseline ideas are the competitor benchmarks you need to look at. The bar of comparison should only happen via data metrics that you can gather, evaluate, and use to make more actionable business plans.
If you look at this approach to comparison as a marketing strategy, then it becomes an exciting challenge to see what you can do as a company without feeling like you are a failure as a business owner.
Because you only fail if you don’t learn.
Research and find the problems that need to be solved in your business. Because if you can solve those problems better than your competitors, then you can start your progression upward in overall growth.
Look for What the Customers Ultimately Want
Loyal customers are loyal for a reason. Customer satisfaction as well as customer experience is essential because you are creating a business for them and for their needs to be fulfilled.
And every business is going to go about it similarly and differently.
Instead of going on a negative downward spiral of comparing yourself, look instead for what your target audience and customers are looking for.
If you don’t have a good amount of customers yet, then go into social media forums, such as Facebook, Reddit, Quora, and look at what the community is asking when it comes to your niche (in this case, beauty and skin care).
You’d be surprised in what people are looking for, and what they complain about when it comes to certain product choices out there in many niche markets.
So, as part of your competitive research, effectively look through at where you can fill in the gaps in the market. Instead of comparing your business to others, see where you can shine for those millions upon millions of consumers out there.
Because you don’t have to necessarily be better. You just have to be different.
And being different means producing and marketing a product that answers people’s problems and concerns.
And how you get out of the comparison trap is to provide what your target customers want.
Comparison: The Thief of Joy
Life is not necessarily a competition. Who you are is not defined by your achievements or lack thereof.
Who you are is a human being doing their best for the sake of living.
And running a business can be a beautiful expression of who you are and your purpose.
You just have to remember that while it can be a competitive world out there, it doesn’t have to be a detrimental thing that stokes those fears of unworthiness within you.
Life is an opportunity to create wonderful things from innovative ideas that many people around the world are continuing to aim for in the same field.
While it can be competitive, it doesn’t mean that you can’t strive to do the best for you and your business.
If anything, use what other people and businesses in your niche are doing as motivation and inspiration.
And, if that is too hard or triggering at the moment (which is perfectly ok), then allow yourself the time to focus on your work and not look at what other people are doing until you are balanced and calm within yourself.
You can be a startup success because you used the natural instinct of comparison in a productive and strategic manner rather than as a self-defeating abuse.
You are not behind. You are not late.
You are right where you need to be.
And if some days the thief of joy steals your momentum, you have the choice to take it right back.