When you’re brand new and just starting up as a business, it can be hard to see how you’re going to beat those who have been there for a few years already. They’ve settled down in the market, after all, gotten to know their customers and already tweaked their products and services to perfectly fit their segment. So where do you even begin when you want to compete with that?
Luckily, those competitors won’t even see you coming, and you still have time to research them thoroughly. Nobody’s perfect, after all, and your business may be able to deliver exactly where they’re lacking.
Here is a handful of ways to put your own startup a bit ahead before you’ve even started. That way, you’ll actually have a running chance – and they’ll be forced to give way.
First: Customers want an ethical business
The market is increasingly aware of the ethical aspect of businesses, and we’re not just talking about how green they are – although this certainly also has an impact. When left with a choice of the same kind of services in comparable price ranges, they’ll definitely choose the option where their money goes back into the community.
Social awareness, in general, is a huge concept and certainly something that can help your startup a bit along the way.
Choose your cause, make it happen, and remember to let your customers know about it. A certain percentage can go to this cause, for example, as long as you’re still able to make a decent profit – or you could focus on hiring those who generally fall into a social category that struggles with finding employment.
Either way, it’s great for business and fantastic for the community.
Next: Spy on your competitors
As mentioned above, you do have an excellent advantage when you’re a bit late to the party; you know about your competitors but they don’t necessarily know about you.
Luckily, everything is online these days too and you can sneak a peek at everything from their customer reviews to their products and services. If they struggle with their customer service, among others, you’ll be able to afford an excellent team with this customer success software, for example.
Try to offer something that you can tell their customers have been looking for. Most likely, you won’t be able to beat them on price quite yet but you can still make sure that your business is ahead of them in other ways.
Social media is a great place to start when you’d like to spy on your competitors – and you’ll get a decent idea of how they usually communicate with their customers too. Check out this article before you get started to learn a bit more about how you can use social media to spy on your competition.
While you’d probably like to get started as soon as possible, it’s always better to give yourself some time for a bit of thorough research. That way, you’ll be ready to fight when those doors open and much more prepared than the rest of your competitors.
