Competition is healthy for your business. It motivates you to become better, pushing you to innovate and change your “old” strategies to new ones so you can stay ahead of the curve. Yet beating the competition is easier said than done. There’s no simple answer or solution on how to beat business rivalry. It is hard to assess your rival’s market share, market figures, and sales with a small business. So let’s take a look at a few essential steps you can take to help you stay competitive in a dynamic and unpredictable market.
Know Your Customers
Focus on who your customers are and build a good relationship with them. Ask your customer what they want or need and respond to it. Engage with them through social media channels, newsletters, or try to offer incentives. The more you engage, the more they build their confidence in you.
Constant engagement will also help you know your customer’s pain points. Once you have the complete picture, focus your efforts to provide solutions for your customers’ issues. Try to invest in quality CRM and customer service tools to provide your customers with a better experience.
Engage with Competitor
Examine the marketplace and take a hard look at what your competitors are doing. What are they offering, and what works for them? Is it better than your current products or service? What makes your own offer unique from your competitors? You can also talk to your competitors directly. Businesses improve when two rival companies aim to solve the market’s problem better than each other. Don’t settle for mediocrity; work on delivering the best for your customers.
Do Small Business Competitive Research
Market research is a valuable tool to develop further how you understand your customers and maximise your potential for profit and growth.
“Research how successful business owners made themselves and their business stand out.”
Find out more about startup competition in the market to generate a unique twist to your niche. Research how business owners made themselves and their business stand out. Gather some information on what many companies are doing, then see what you can emulate or change. Once you know more about your competitors, you can also look for insights from different company teams. Ask them what they like about working in that company. You can also engage with employers and ask them how they were able to navigate in a competitive market. These insights can be valuable to improving your own business.
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel
Don’t waste your time trying to be original or thinking you’re creating something when it already exists. Instead, think about what your industry needs and is not doing yet. List things that will make your products and services unique before you start your business. If you’re in a stagnant industry, don’t be afraid to mix it up. Try something new; if it works out, you’ll have the first-mover advantage.
Take Risks
Taking risks doesn’t mean going to business blindly then expecting good results. Taking risks in business means careful planning and hard work. You’ll never know until you try. Do it – that’s one way to find out if something will work for your business. ‘What-if’s’ won’t let you sleep at night. If you want to stand out, enhance your risk-taking ability. Taking risks teaches essential skills like calculating contingencies, better decision-making, and strategic planning. Someone will always be the first to make changes and innovate. To beat the competition, you have to be that someone. It’s better to be a leader than just a follower.
Use Finance to Your Advantage
One of the biggest problems small businesses face is access to sufficient working capital. This is often exacerbated by late-paying customers, particularly larger organisations that look to take advantage of their size. Debtor finance turns your unpaid invoices into cash. This eliminates the problem of hampered business growth due to late payments and cash flow locked up in your accounts receivable balance.
Here’s how it works: a third-party commercial finance company provides what is essentially a rotating business line of credit, using your unpaid invoices as collateral. The more money owed to you by your debtors, the more finance you can access. Debtor finance is based on revenue, not profitability. This allows your business to get the capital without using your personal assets or property for extra security, not to mention the strict requirements for a bank loan. This is an excellent solution if your small business is suffering from late-paying customers if your payments terms are longer than 30 days, or simply for those growing businesses that require ongoing cash flow for working capital necessary for growth.
OptiPay helps small and medium businesses sustainably access the working capital they need to support their operations, pay their bills and expand. Turn your unpaid invoices into the cash you need by making OptiPay your partner for flexible business finance today.
