#175 My top mindset tips for dealing with competition
Competition in business isn't necessarily a negative thing. In fact, it's a crucial aspect of the marketplace. Clients and consumers deserve choices, and honest and good faith competition is something I genuinely believe in.
Knowing who your competitors are and staying informed about industry trends is wise. It’s just good business - and being aware of what others are doing can even open the door for potential collaboration. However, there’s a big difference between taking inspiration from other businesses and flat out copying. That is certainly not okay.
Dealing with Dishonest Competition
Unfortunately, not all competition is fair. There are instances when competitors might copy your work, mimicking your efforts to advance their own business. While imitation is often said to be a form of flattery, I completely disagree. Copying someone's hard work and presenting it as your own is just wrong, and today's digital age makes it easier for such unethical behaviour to occur.
If a competitor is copying you, it's crucial to stay focused on your own business. Don’t allow this to consume you or derail you from your own business goals because getting distracted will incur a bigger cost on the business than the copying itself.
Be Confident and Anchored to Your Why
Always remember your business's mission, vision, and unique selling points. Stay focused on your values and continue serving your clients to the best of your ability. The truth of the matter is that anyone who copies your work is only demonstrating that they have no originality and they will not stand the test of time. Stay in your lane and keep focussed on your why.
Stay Informed
Keeping your finger on the pulse with industry trends and knowing what your competitors are up to is good business practice. This way, you can discern whether a situation is genuinely harmful to your business or whether it’s something that you can shake off.
Stay Focused
Don’t be consumed by what your competitors are doing. By keeping your focus on your business, you’ll ensure that you're not distracted from the important activities that generate revenue and really push the needle forward.
Understand and Protect Your Intellectual Property
Make sure you understand your intellectual property including trademarks and copyrights. Protecting your unique ideas and original work can deter competitors from copying you outright and resolve issues swiftly if or when your copyrights are infringed.
Don't Go It Alone
Having a reliable support system is invaluable in business. This could include your business lawyer or a team of advisors who understand your business's intricacies. When issues arise, discussing them with trusted individuals can help you develop a strategic response and give you peace of mind for how to move forward.
Competition is inevitable in business, and it should be embraced when it’s fair and ethical. However, understanding how to deal with less honourable competitors is equally essential. By staying confident, informed, focused, and legally protected, you can navigate the challenges that arise without letting them derail your business success.
Full Transcript:
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[00:00:00] Tracey: Competition in business is not a bad thing. There will always be competition. There should always be competition. It's good. Clients and consumers should have a choice, a choice on who they want to engage to provide professional services or any type of services to their business. And equally, they should have a choice of who they buy from.
[00:00:42] So this applies to service based businesses and product based businesses. Competition is good. My view when it comes to competition is when we're talking honest, good faith competition and everyone going about their business doing their thing, I genuinely think there is plenty of work for everyone and I hope we all do well.
[00:01:03] Hand on heart. That's my view about honest, good faith competition. as a business owner, my view is that it's really important to focus on your business, to be anchored to your why, and to understand your point of difference and continue to serve your clients. So that is very much another way of saying stay in your lane, not get caught up in the noise and don't get consumed by what other businesses are or are not doing.
[00:01:34] This is In my view, when we're talking honest, good faith competition, but what I will say is knowing who your competition is. Is or are, and knowing what's going on in your industry is smart. I think we should all have our finger on the pulse when it comes to what's going on in our industry and know what our competitors are doing.
[00:01:58] There's a difference between knowing and being informed with our finger on the pulse and becoming consumed in it and distracted by it such that we're not staying in our lane and we're not focusing on our business being anchored to our why and our point of difference. So there's a fine line here. And my view genuinely is that when we're talking honest, good faith competition, it's good business and smart to have our finger on the pulse and know what's going on in our industry.
[00:02:25] we can even if we want to then, when we know what's going on in the industry, and we've identified other businesses and competitors who are aligned with us, there's the potential for collaboration.
[00:02:36] We've all heard stories about competitors collaborating and rising even higher and that's always a possibility. It doesn't work for everybody. It doesn't work for every business or every industry, but the possibility is there and there's no reason why, if we are anchored to our why in business, we're focused on our point of difference and we're serving our beautiful clients, we can't think about collaborating from time to time with other businesses that are doing something the same or similar and support each other. I'm just throwing it out there.
[00:03:08] So when we talk about honest, good faith competition, Hand on heart, stay in your lane is my view because there's enough work for everybody and I hope we all do well. That's all lovely in a perfect world, isn't it, Tracy?
[00:03:24] You may be thinking, yes, I'm a realist and I know that we don't live in a perfect world. So sometimes good faith, honest competition is not the basis of our discussion when we're talking competitors. I get it. Sometimes competitors will copy you. They will mimic what you're doing. They will try to rise or advance their business based on your efforts, based on your reputation, based on the hard work that you've put in and the effort you've gone to, to achieve what you have.
[00:04:03] Sometimes it happens. This, I'm not okay with. We've all heard the phrase imitation is the first form of flattery. I call BS on that. I do not subscribe to that. I think imitation is shit. I think there is so much exposure to our businesses these days with so many businesses being online and so many businesses increasing their profile through marketing and social media and other digital platforms that we are sharing our craft with the world.
[00:04:31] We are sharing our uniqueness with the world. And when other people come along and imitate slash copy you, I don't think that's okay and I don't think in this day and age that there's any need for it. On one hand, what I do say to clients when they reach out to me because they've been copied by a competitor and somebody is trying to yield a benefit off the back of their hard work, on the one hand, I say, stick with it, stay focused on your business, stay in your lane. They're copying you already. They're not going to cut it. They will be exposed. There's no long term sustainability in a business model based on copying. So on one hand, I'll say that.
[00:05:11] On the other hand, though, I empathize because it isn't right. People do feel an injustice and I don't subscribe to imitation is a form of flattery. Let me just say that on social media these days, on these marketing platforms that we all use in our websites and all the things, there is an element of expectation that we ought to have as business owners, where people will take inspiration from what we're doing.
[00:05:38] That is okay. Taking inspiration, isn't that what it's about? Isn't that what we're on social media for to share our craft and to inspire others? Yes. So taking inspiration by what somebody's doing out there is okay in my view, perfectly okay, provided you do it respectfully and you don't cross that line into,
[00:06:00] imitation. There's a difference between taking inspiration from a business and copying. Flat out copying is not okay, but let's be honest, it will happen. Competitors will flat out copy from time to time. It happens. I have clients of whom it's happened to. It's happened to me. There are other lawyers who copy my stuff. My essential legal checklist. I've seen replicas of it. that other people have raised with me to share with me because somebody looks like they've downloaded it and then just changed a bit of it. to My tagline has been copied several times And I do find that to be a shame that it happens, but it's not so much a shame for me as much as it is for the other business owner, because they're already demonstrating that they have no originality. There's nothing unique about them, they're not clear on their why, and they certainly are not clear on their point of difference.
[00:06:57] They're copying somebody else's. Taking inspiration again, fine. Flat out copying, not okay. Reflects poorly on the business copying. Doesn't reflect poorly on me. So when competitors are copying you, it's not reflecting poorly on you. It's reflecting poorly on them. There is a difference between inspiration and copying.
[00:07:18] So if a competitor is copying you, it does not need to derail your business. In fact, it's really important that you stay focused on your business and on your lane and don't allow it to consume you. Because if it does, all of a sudden you've taken your eye off the ball in your business.
[00:07:39] You're not engaging in what it is you're supposed to be engaging in. Usually revenue generating activities. You are distracted and then there's a bigger cost to your business than being copied, but it's you not being at your best, driving the business forward. That's where the real problem lies.
[00:07:55] This is a conversation I have with clients frequently, particularly because more and more businesses are becoming digital and more and more businesses are sharing so much with the world, which makes it really easy for competitors to step in and copy. but what I say here in the approach that I take with my clients, when we're talking about competition. And again, we're not talking about the honest, good faith competition here, are we? We're talking about that competition that lacks that good faith, and it's not honest. But the first thing to be mindful of is to be confident, be anchored to your why and your point of difference in your business.
[00:08:34] There is plenty of work for everyone. Focus on you. Don't be derailed. The second point is being informed. Always know what your competition are doing. Absolutely. It's good business. Have your finger on the pulse. So if someone shares something with you and you then become livid because you think, my gosh, this is my blood, sweat and tears.
[00:08:53] And you become emotional and all you can see is red because oh my gosh, the injustice, to that I say, calm down, go and have a look for yourself, see what's actually going on here. Is this really a threat? Be informed, have your finger on the pulse, inform yourself what's really going on.
[00:09:08] The third thing I say is stay focused and don't be derailed. Like I said a moment ago, if you become consumed by what a competitor is doing, not only are you not focusing on your business, your why, your point of difference for your clients, but you are becoming distracted and not engaging in your revenue generating activities.
[00:09:27] This is not going to serve your business. It's not going to serve your clients. It's not going to serve you. So stay focused. The fourth thing I say is be empowered by your intellectual property. So if there is something in your business that is unique to you and that you can protect, and I'm talking trademark here or copyright.
[00:09:49] Know what that means. Know your intellectual property. Know what is your intellectual property. Know what can be protected by way of trademarks. Understand how copyright works. Had a client reach out to me once saying, Oh my gosh, somebody else has copied the blog off my website. I write this, this is for my clients.
[00:10:06] They've literally copied and pasted it. And they had. My client understood her copyright in her own original work. We sent a cease and desist letter. The other business took it down within moments of getting our email. It was gone because they knew they'd done the wrong thing and they'd been caught out and challenged. But my client was empowered because she knew how to protect her copyright. So know your intellectual property, be empowered by it.
[00:10:35] And the fifth thing I say is don't go it alone in business when we're talking competition, whether it's the honest, good faith competition or whether it's the the other, don't go it alone. Have a team around you that you can call to talk this through and work out, is this a threat? Do I need to do something about this? Or is this just part and parcel? They're not copying. They've taken some inspiration. I wish them well and move on. Have somebody in your corner to talk it through with.
[00:11:03] Most often that's likely going to be your business lawyer. Your business lawyer who's a part of your team of advisors, who knows your business, who knows you, who you can pick up the phone to and say, Hey, I've just found out this happened. I feel really disgruntled or I'm a bit rattled by this. Can we talk it through? We talk it through, understand, identify any issues, work out whether this is good faith or not. Work out whether this is inspiration or not. Is it copying? Have they infringed intellectual property? What's really going on?
[00:11:34] Develop a strategy and a plan for the way forward. This can save so much time and angst for business owners who would otherwise be spinning in circles, not knowing which way is up and then not knowing how to move forward in a strategic way to deal with this.
[00:11:53] These five points are really important because competition Will happen. It will always be there as it should. But knowing the difference between that honest, good faith competition that I talked about, and that's okay and the other. So the less honest and lacking in good faith competition where you are being copied, where people are doing things that are untoward to try to get an advantage or a benefit off the back of your business, that's not okay.
[00:12:22] But understanding the difference and having an approach that you can work through when it comes up so that you're not derailed so that it doesn't cost your business time and energy when you're away from doing what it is you're supposed to be doing because you've been thrown because this competitor is coming to the mix, having an approach, a clear approach of what you're going to do in my view, is incredibly important as a business owner.
[00:12:48] So I'll just recap on what those five points were. First, be confident, be anchored to your why, understand your point of difference and focus on your client. Stay in your lane. So be confident in your business. The second is being informed. Inform yourself of what's going on in your industry and keep your finger on the pulse with what your competitors are doing. It's good business and it's smart.
[00:13:10] The third, stay focused and don't be derailed. If something comes up, Don't become all consumed. Stay in your lane, have a process. Fourth, be empowered by your intellectual property. Know it, understand it, know how to protect it. And the fifth, to bring all this together, don't go it alone.
[00:13:29] Have the right people in your corner that you can talk to and that my friend is likely to include your business lawyer. Have someone you can talk to, to nut it out, flesh it out, identify the issues and work out a way forward strategically in a way that's going to be aligned for your business. I hope you have found this episode helpful.
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[00:14:01] That's how we help the podcast get into the ease of even more business owners as always. Thank you so much for listening. I'll catch you next week.
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