As we kick back for the weekend, thought I’d share this mental floss with you.
This phrase continues to be popular, even though we all know better!
This week I heard it 3 times – yes, that’s the truth.
It’s importantl (and necessary) to have something unique, but it’s also important to be grounded in reality. You always have competition – it might the most low-tech type of alternatives, ie. receptionists vs. automated attendants, paper based notebooks vs. handheld computers, etc.
Or it might be something more advanced – the same solution as yours but with a different feature set. Or if you have a new idea that extends the category in a new direction, then watch for “within category” competition to respond.
You lose credibility when you answer “there’s no one like us”. It’s more credible to look real hard at who would potentially steal the revenue from a customer away from you.
If after doing your homework you can honestly say "there’s no competition", then that’s a whole different problem you don’t want to have.
I’ll talk more about this next week. Enjoy the sunshine wherever you are!
sounds familiar ;-)
Thinking you are unique is the self confidence compulsory for the entrpreneur to take the risk. You have to believe noone else can do this like you do...
As much as i think this self confidence is compulsory for success. i agree it would need to be balanced with paranoid behaviour always looking for who might take our part of the cake.
The easy way is therefor to be a selfconfident paranoid ;-)
Posted by: julien | June 07, 2005 at 09:26 AM