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Brian's
Introduction
By
Brian Walsh (Founder & CEO of
Entrepreneur.co.za)
Running a business requires creativity. You need
to know your product and market well, and you
need to constantly do research to anticipate
changes and implement improvements in order to
stay ahead of, or in line with, your
competition.
Competition is healthy. It ensures collective
growth in markets and helps make products
relevant and cost effective. Having no current
competition is more threatening than having
competition.
If you realise that competitors are beating you
at securing or retaining clients, you have to
act immediately…and it’s not all about price.
People would rather pay more for better quality
goods or services. You need to consider the
following four points in order to deal with
competition challenges:
Your Product
– is your product competitive and up-to-date?
You need to stay in touch with competitive
products, and upgrade or improve your offerings
on a regular basis.
Service
– if your product is a service, then the point
above applies just the same as if it were a
physical product. If your product has service
associated with it, this can sometimes be where
problems lie when the associated service is not
up to standard. Ensure that you offer top
quality service at all times.
Price
– as I have mentioned, price is not everything.
However, you need to make sure you are
competitively priced in the market, especially
if you are selling physical items. If you do not
keep an eye on your market and competitors, you
may find out too late that you are not
competitive price-wise. Rather deal with price
issues before they become a problem.
Market
– markets change and you may need to expand your
market, or even change the segment that you are
marketing towards. Once again, by keeping in
touch with market trends you should be able to
address these issues before they become a
problem.
Dealing with competition in your relevant market
or industry is part of what makes a business
successful. Be proactive and ensure that you are
fully aware of what is going on around you.
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