Starting and Managing Profitable Business: How to Overcome Competition

Starting a business is not as easy as managing the business and turning the investment to a profitable venture. Ideally, part of the integral management responsibility of business is coping and managing competition from others which may arise from production similarity, product similarity, quality of products etc. competition as important as it is, is one of those factors that determine the fate of some many businesses. 

However, an entrepreneur whether new entrants or existing must knows that he is not the only persons in a particular line of business and hence he must be ready to compete with others for the following: resources (land, labour, and capital), market, customers, and general acceptance of products and services which will go a long way to achieve his entrepreneurial objective(s). Owners of business Do you have a great idea which you would like to turn into money? Then there are lots of things to consider. For example: What will be my biggest risk?

There are many threats in business: economic downturns, the financial crisis, adverse international exchange rates, government and regulatory barriers, politics, skills shortages, labour disputes, and lack of capital – to name a few.

However, there is really only one threat that should keep you awake at night. And that’s COMPETITION. Competition from others is the only force that you cannot control. Let’s take a closer look at this unpredictable threat.

You will have competitors! That’s a fact!

“Successful entrepreneurs are paranoid about their competitors. If you believe that you don’t have any competitors, think again. If you don’t see them, believe that they exist. You can bet that someone somewhere is chasing the same opportunity that you are”.

Even if there aren’t any obvious competitors, there are likely to be alternative solutions that your target customers are buying to meet their needs. Their suppliers may become your competitors. Search the web. Go to trade shows and conferences. Read industry magazines and journals.

Where to start

How to enter an existing market

Those that are first to market are not always the ones who end up dominating a market. Apple is a good example of this. Apple didn’t invent computers, music players, tablets or smart phones. They just made them friendlier and more attractive and pricier to boot!

Entering an existing market (i.e. one with known competitors) is not a bad thing. It may be easier to beat known competitors than it is to beat those that haven’t yet been identified.

“When entering an established market, what would those already in that market think about you? Would you be a threat to them? If you don’t think that they may find you threatening in some way, does that tell you that maybe their customers won’t switch allegiance?

If you’re onto something big, what’ll keep others from beating you – either existing or new competitors? What are the barriers to competition? Describe any barriers to others competing with your product or service. Examples might be:

•  Patent, copyright or other IP protection

•  Time to engineer a new product

•   Capital requirements

• Regulatory approvals

• Trade barrier

• Access to know-how and skilled labour

• Strategic relationships

What about timing

How long will it take you before you start generating sales? Is there still a lot of development work that is required? Even if development is complete, will there be production delays – tooling, regulatory approvals, supply constraints, and testing or training issues? Your main advantage may be getting to market first.

What to consider

    What offerings are potentially competitive to yours?

    Name your top 3 competitors, regardless of size or dominance

    Why will your product “beat” the competition?

    What are the barriers to competition?

Competition is the biggest risk

All competitors in a particular industry face similar risks with respect to economic, political, and environmental factors. If there’s a global economic downturn, they will all be equally affected. “The worst form of competition is when a new technology unknown to you is introduced”. Many companies have failed because they hung onto traditional ways of doing things – not just limited to technology, but also business methods – instead of constantly innovating.

Many technology ventures get started because of some new invention or technological break-through. These companies are always at risk of losing out to a newer technology. Therefore, they must always maintain ties to research organizations to avoid technological obsolescence.

In summary, you should ask yourself 3 basic questions before starting your own business:

    What can go wrong?

    What can you do about it?

    Do you have what it takes?

This competitive Internet world, for any business organization profit maximization and customer satisfaction are the main motto of their business. With growing trends and advancements in the business, they follow different marketing strategies for promoting their products and reaching out for their customers. Likely, competition is also increasing among the organizations both domestically as well as globally.

 Hence there should be a steady watch on our competitors for improving standards of our business and retaining our customers. Effective analytical tools, SEO optimized tools are to be updated so that our website can be more competitive and provide good services for our customers.

Few Tips to Overcome Competition

Some of the tips to provide efficient business management and retain our customers from heavy competition are given below

1.         Emerging trends in business due to globalization has made globalized business at one place and made complete world as there globalized customers for there products hence now the competition is not only from there own country but also from the other countries by keeping this in mind many organizations are changing promotion strategies of there products. They are preparing plans to promote there products to meet the international standards for this they are taking help social media marketing sites and industrial media which comes under print and electronic media.

2.         Making service as invisible tools to your competitors. Because of the customers all over the world for the organizations and by the heavy competition from the other organizations , providing service to the customers is becoming an invisible tool for the organizations to meet their competitors and also for the promoting their products. By providing these services, organizations are meeting their targets and earning profits.

3.         Latest technology to overcome global competition. Technology adopting by the organizations plays an important role in facing competitors. Because of the development of technology in today’s world customers are getting attracted to latest products. Get them updated with our latest products using latest marketing strategies like lead capture pages, email marketing.

4.         Using Latest Marketing Strategies and Blog Advertising. Stay updated about the latest marketing strategies like Email marketing, viral marketing and select which marketing best suits for your business. One solution to get new customers is blog advertising which can bring you new customers in even during healthy competition.

Good luck!