In any industry, booming or otherwise, it is natural to have competitors to your business.
These competitors come in the form of other businesses providing similar services or products as your business.
In case of onshore competitors, then chances are, not only are the products and services they are providing similar to yours, but their target demography is the same as well.
Do not make the mistake of assuming you have or will have no competition because your product or service is quite unique.
The Increase of Onshore Competitors
Not matter how niche, competition exists for almost all businesses and sometimes these businesses have to fight tooth-and-nail in order to gain a larger share of the customer pool.
For this reason, competition in itself is often viewed in an almost negative light.
However, having competitors is not necessarily a bad thing and can be quite good for business.
Competition drives each business in the market to “one-up” one another.
Since onshore competitors deal with trying to attract the same customers, knowing that someone is coming right for your spot or vice versa pushes you to be smarter, think quicker and, overall, just work harder to achieve your goals.
You are more prone to take high-risk high-reward decisions in order to gain an edge.
A lot can be learnt from the successes and failures that result from your decisions.
All in all, competitions are healthy for a business and help it grow in many ways.
It all falls on whether you can deal with it in a way that reaps you those benefits or not.
Thus, properly learning to deal with any competition you face is key.
First and foremost, it is of great significance to know the product you are providing by heart and to know how the product sets itself apart from those of your competitors.
These competitors might have a lot more funding and a much larger workforce, but it is important to not dwell on that. What they will never have is your drive, experience, ambition and passion.
You should know exactly how your product or service differs from those of your competitors and have faith in that difference to reel in your customers and eventually set you apart from the rest of the flock.
With that being said, it’s also important to note that just sitting by and stubbornly sticking to something that is not working is also a bad idea.
Your business should be ready to improvise and adapt along with the market trends.
Otherwise, your onshore competitors will steal away even your customer base.
Case and point: Netflix and Blockbuster.
This is why it’s important to learn from your competition as well. Just by keeping tabs on how they price their goods, their marketing strategies and offers, etc., a lot can be learnt about the current state of the market and what consumers are looking for.
From that, if necessary, you can make changes to your own strategies and reach newer heights.
It is important to realize that your competition is also an asset and not a liability.
Learn to study them from the perspective of a customer and you will see a lot of things they might be doing right which you might not.
Now, most of the competition talked about so far paints a picture of a market where your business is fighting neck and neck with rival companies.
However, that might not always be the case. Sometimes a product or two might pop up which slips right under the radar because of various reasons.
You might be dominating the market to a degree where you do not feel the need to pay attention to the smaller players entering the field.
It might also be a case where you are in such a fierce race with your rival companies for the local market, that you lose track of any new business that has also entered the race.
Whatever the case, this is quite detrimental. Ignoring a potential competitor can lead to serious drawbacks.
There have been cases of previously dominant businesses losing their customers to an up-and-coming competitor simply because they were not paying attention and making necessary adjustments.
Sometimes these up-and-coming players actually have a much better product than the one belonging to the current leader of the market.
It is important to note that all your competitors, big or small, have a common goal and that is to beat you, their competitor.
Even if the bigger companies seem more of a threat, the smaller ones can sometimes be even more dangerous as they do not have to get caught up in all the red tape that the bigger ones do.
So it is important to keep track of any potential competitor and give them the proper respect that they as a fellow competitor deserves no matter how big or small they are. Underestimating them will only work to harm you and your business.
Along this point, it also works from the other way as well. If you are a relatively small business entering a market dominated by industry giants, then you should never feel like you can never compete with them.
You might not be able to (initially) go toe-to-toe with the onshore giants in terms of raw business volume, but you can create your own niche market with your own loyal customers and build up from there.
Going back to the first point, find what sets your product apart from these giants and really hone it to perfection.
By careful planning and proper strategies, the sky’s the limit!
Another noteworthy way of approaching completion might be to be open to a joint venture or to become an affiliate partner with them.
This may not be for everyone, but for those, for example, who might struggle with certain fractions of the service they provide, while excelling in others.
In this scenario, it might be a good idea to team up with another business that might excel in the fields your business struggles in and thus have a best-of-both-world scenario.
Idealistically, this would be a great way to eliminate your own headache as well as competition in one fell swoop.
With all of this being said, perhaps the most important thing to know is to not obsess over the competition.
This sounds almost contradictory, but the idea is to find a proper balance. It’s important to keep track of competitors and approach competition in all the ways mentioned above, but it’s also important to not lose sight of your own targets.
If you spend all your time stressing over your competition and trying to beat them, then you will never find the time to actually sit and improve on your own product and business model (which might even in turn take you ahead of your competitors).
Focus on improving your own product or service and satisfying your customers as best you can.