In our hyper competitive society, we are pretty much taught from an early age to mistrust the competition; destroying or buying them is preferable. It’s pretty rare when competitors band together to get something done. Though they might lobby Congress together (car manufacturers against stricter fuel efficiency standards, for example), they’re not exactly eager to share the resources, ideas, or innovations that could move the entire industry forward.
But this ingrained fear of the competition is not healthy and can work to our detriment, especially for us small business owners. Embracing the competition is actually a really good idea for two reasons:
Big Projects
If you have the opportunity to bid on a really big project or, even better, are approached to lead a really big project, you are probably going to need help. And I don’t mean bringing in the vendors and companies you normally partner with, but help doing what you normally do.
I’ll use myself as an example. I’m busy as it is, which is great, but if I was asked to write content for a 100-page corporate website, plus their intranet and e-commerce site, and it was all due in a month, there is just no way I would be able to pull it off without working an insane amount of hours. I would have to hand over some of the work to an equally good web writer.
To ensure I’d get the project, I’d want to have a vetted list of people I could call up and ask if they’d be interested in coming on board. Putting aside my work to frantically email my network in search of copywriters would not be fun, and I probably would not have time to meet with them beforehand to make sure I actually liked them.
And don’t forget that we all live on a two-way street; your competitor could you bring you on board as a sub some time.
Fire Sale
People close up shop for a variety of reasons: illness, divorce, retirement, moving overseas, winning the lottery. The smart ones sell their business, their inventories, their client lists, and their equipment and tools. If you want to have first dibs on any of those valuable assets, your competitors need to know, trust, and like you.
Last fall, I heard a very successful retailer talk about how she has grown her business, even during this recession we are slowly crawling out of. One of the reasons for her success: she kept in touch with her competitors. When one of the competitors closed their store, she was contacted first about buying up the remaining inventory (which she said was really fabulous stuff) in a fire sale. What a great opportunity to expand a product line!
Back when I was a personal chef, I was approached by another personal chef who was moving from Boston to California about buying one of her clients for what I thought was an extortionate price, so I passed. Greed doesn’t pay.
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Tags: Business Development, Marketing, selling your business, small business owners
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