comparing your business to the competition – GoForth Institute Blog

3 ways to help your business stand out

Many start-ups and established businesses alike have one common concern: How do I help my business stand out from my competitors? In a crowded market, it’s important to find sustainable strategies to differentiate your business from others.

Here are 3 ways you can help your small business stand out from your competitors.

1) Identify as specific a niche as you can

Many entrepreneurs identify their businesses as being in a broader industry. Understanding your industry is important, as it’ll help you determine the factors that can influence your business decisions. However, when it comes to standing out, it’s important to find a specific niche. For example, your fitness studio may seem like any other fitness studio to prospective clients. But what if they knew you ran a fitness studio that had a specific focus on designing programs to help people with chronic pain exercise safely? That would really set you apart from your competitors, wouldn’t it?

2) Ask your existing customers for their perspective

Who better to tell you how you stand out than the loyal and happy customers you already have? Depending on your customer base, this can take the form of a casual chat with your regulars, or a more structured customer feedback survey – try a modified version of our quick eight-part customer survey. You may be surprised at the specific things your customers identify as your differentiating factors. Outside perspective can be immensely valuable!

3) Consider a pivot

What if your customers uncover an area for improvement, or give you a great idea for helping your business stand out that you haven’t thought of yet? It may be time to pivot. A core component of the lean start-up methodology, pivoting is a useful way to iterate quickly based on customer feedback. Whether it’s a different platform, new technology, a new product feature, or something else, pivoting can identify a perfect way to help you stand out in a crowded market.

Want to learn more about things like identifying your industry, picking a niche, customer satisfaction, and lean start-up? Check out our industry-leading small business training video program.

Share this post:

Where is your competitive advantage?

Your business has a competitive advantage when customers believe your products and services are superior to your competitors’.

Many small business owners do what they see will succeed. Tempting, but it can get you into trouble. Why would customers buy from you if you’re indistinguishable from your competitors, who they already have history with? From the customer’s point of view, you’re the more risky alternative.

How do you lower that risk? By crafting a competitive advantage and clearly communicating your advantage to the customer. Let’s take a look at the most popular forms of competitive advantage:

Price/Value Competitive Advantage

This competitive advantage can include things like:
Improved process efficiencies
Skilled staff
Favourable location
Optimal outsourcing
Access to cheaper resources and inputs
Cost avoidance
Superior technology
Lower marketing expenses
Efficient distribution channels
Effective partnerships or alliances
Lower overhead
Waste reduction

Your small business may have lower costs than your competitors, while still seeing reasonable profit margins, by either selling your products at average prices to earn a profit higher than the competition, or at below average prices to gain market share. If superior prices aren’t possible, you can also get an advantage over the competition by offering superior value in your products or services.

Niche Markets Competitive Advantage

Serving a niche market means selling to a region overlooked or not currently being served, or a distribution channel.

You can get a niche market advantage by offering a product or service with unique attributes that customers of an underserved market love. There’s a potential for high demand here, which means you may be able to offer your product or service for a premium price. In this case, you’ll need to keep up with research and demand. Stay innovative while remaining connected to the customers in your niche.

Adaptability Competitive Advantage

Your small business may get an advantage over competitors through your ability to adapt to changing markets and demands. Small businesses can often adjust processes and procedures much faster than some larger competitors. When you adapt faster and more accurately, your business may be able to offer a superior product or service to the market first, before your competitors can get back on their feet. This opens up the possibility of a monopoly (where you would be the only company in the market offering the product or service) for a while.

Share this post:

A handy way to help analyze your competition

small_business_competition Analyzing your small business’ competition is a very important aspect in start-up, and beyond – we’ve talked about it in the context of choosing your business’ location, for example.

But what do you do with all the data you collect in your competition research? How do you know what to look for when you’re analyzing your competitors? Wouldn’t it be great if there was a handy chart were you could note factors such as location, target market, reputation, advertising expenditure, strengths, and weaknesses?

We think it’s a handy tool too, so we created one! GoForth’s How Do I Measure Up? Competitive Matrix is a no-nonsense, one-page comparison chart for your small business and three competitors. You can see, at a glance, how your small business stacks up against the competition.

And the best part? It’s free to download in PDF form. So check out GoForth’s How Do I Measure Up? Competitive Matrix, one of the many small business templates and checklists we’re happy to offer to entrepreneurs just like you.

Share this post: