5 Things to Consider if You Want to Stay Competitive
Whether you’re a business owner,entrepreneur, or manager, you have to pay attention to the business landscapeand your place in it if you want to be successful. You don’t want to get caughtlanguishing by the side of the road as the rest of the marketplace rushes byyou. It’s important to assess where you are now and how you can maintain,regain, or create a competitive edge over the crowd.
1.Branding
What do you do and what sets you apart?
Branding is the buzzword of the day, maybethe decade. Though possibly overused, the concept is still an important one.Branding is far more than a memorable tag-line, catchy logo, or impressiveelevator speech. The primary value of branding is in clarifying precisely whatmakes you different, what you have to offer that makes you stand out from thebulk of competitors in the marketplace. Branding is the cornerstone of anysuccessful marketing plan.
2.Relationships
What do people care about and what needs dothey have?
Getting to know and understand people isvital. The key is to focus on quality over quantity. Masses of social mediaconnections matter less than relationships with people who can directlyinfluence the success or failure of the business. Current and prospectivecustomers, as well as employees and professional connections have the mostrelevant opinions and useful feedback to offer. It’s imperative to communicate,listen, and build relationships with those who can impact the future of yourbusiness.
3.Leveraging
What are your areas of efficiency and areasof weakness?
Small businesses and entrepreneurs tend tobe resource poor. It’s just the nature of not having a large cash flow at theirdisposal. The most successful excel at squeezing the maximum value out ofavailable time, money, and talent. Their strategy is to do what they do bestand delegate or outsource the rest. Essentially, they know how to Do More withLess.
They spend their time on activities thatprovide more value, those activities that increase revenue or help the companyto grow. What they don’t do is waste their time on activities that providelittle or no value. While it may seem counter-intuitive to pay others to dotasks that could be done in house, it’s often more efficient and profitable inthe long run. Leveraging unproductive activities saves time and money, byincreasing the focus on the most valuable tasks.
4.Growth
Where are the opportunities for growth?
Complacency and stagnation are red flagsthat portend a grim outlook for future success. The danger lies in placing somuch of our focus on digging in, completing current projects and managing smallcrises that we forget to be open to change and creative innovation.Unfortunately, this negatively affects our position in the business market anddiminishes our competitive advantage.
It’s critical to keep one eye focused ongrowth, evolution, and innovation. If you don’t, you will fade into the crowdwhile other more forward thinking businesses surge ahead, leaving you in theirdust. This sounds overwhelming and somewhat intimidating when you barely haveenough time and energy to focus on current needs, but it doesn’t have to be.All that’s really required is that you stay open to new opportunities and consistentlytake steps — even small ones — to keep growing and moving forward.
Growth takes many forms. It might berevising an existing process, updating skills, investing in new equipment orlearning a new technology. It also might take the form of more significantchanges such as shifting careers or business models, or launching a new productor service.
5.Balance
What do you need? What are you neglecting?What would make you work and life more enjoyable?
Balancing priorities and the differentaspects of our life is the foundation for building a successful and personallyfulfilling career or business. Modern society is buzzing with the work-lifebalance conversation, but often we misconstrue the meaning of balance, or atleast the real world application of the concept. It’s not about trying to allotequal portions of attention, time, and energy to the separate parts or evenmaking one a priority over the other. It’s more about discovering that rightcombination of shifting importance and focus that can meet the ever-changingdemands of work life and personal life while still leaving us feeling happy andfulfilled, and not on society’s terms, but on our own.
Success and fulfillment requires that wepay attention to where we are, how we’re doing, and where we’d like to be. Ifwe can figure out what sets us apart, how we need to grow and what we need todo to keep moving forward, then we can begin to apply our focus and resources –namely time, energy and money – in a way that allows us to continue to thrive.
