Say Hi To Your New Competitor In Town

Wow! What did that title bring up for you? What did you think this post would be about?

My blog posts aren’t long thought about topics, I’m normally inspired by something someone says in passing or something I’ve read.

This morning, on my dog-jog-walk (I don’t do long jogs, yet!) I noticed a local business having a bit of a touch up. Ohh that’ll look nice I thought. I turned a corner and their competitor’s premises struck me in the face – bright, spanking new, on trend, smart, the new go to place in town (village!). This got me thinking – is the freshen up of the first business as a result of the newer business launching? Are they feeling threatened? Are they fearful that they might lose business?

Reflecting on other local companies where competitors have come in with lovely, sparkly business model, enticing clients from their competitors over to spend their money with them. A couple of the original companies

So….is competition a bad thing? 

Having a competitor near you can bring up all sorts of emotions, feelings of being not good enough, feelings of not knowing enough, fears of losing clients and therefore income. If you allow these to infiltrate into your energy then it is going to being you down, it will bring your business down. This is when it becomes a negative thing – allowing yourself to live in fear, constantly judging yourself and the actions of others and essentially not ‘minding your own business’ in both senses of the phrase! Check out this quote by Henry Ford

THE COMPETITOR TO BE FEARED IS THE ONE WHO NEVER BOTHERS ABOUT YOU AT ALL, BUT  GOES ON MAKING THEIR BUSINESS BETTER ALL THE TIME – Henry Ford

Truth is that, if you stay in your own lane, focus on your own success and not let the actions of ANYONE, competitors or not, affect you and your business then competition isn’t a bad thing.

So…do I ignore them totally?

Nooooo! Competition is a good thing. Having someone open up a similar shop nearby to you can be such a positive thing. Firstly it means that there must be a demand for your product or service. In my village alone there are 6 haidressers / barbers within a few hundred metres of each other – add into that the mobile hairdressers – there’s enough clientele for each and everyone of them. Even the dreaded Tesco Express opening up, feared for taking away trade from other convenience stores has in fact led to increased footfall in shops nearby and the other ‘supermarket’ has had a major, long over due, refurb.

The problem is that we can get comfy in our businesses, if it ain’t broken then let’s not fix it. And it can take for a competitor to come along for us to look at ourselves and perhaps invest in some further training that we hadn’t thought about, maybe increase our prices, offer packages that we realise are long awaited or titivate our shopfront / website.

So I invite you to no longer fear competition but to embrace it, introduce yourself (leaving the ego behind) and stay in your own lane. There’s enough lanes for everyone!