8 Ways to Handle Competitors in Business

Competition is the jostle and juggle among firms for customers or buyers. However, it involved, not just other seller but other stakeholders, namely supplier of inputs, rivalry substitute products, new entrants and buyers them self.

Competition forces you to give your best. Having that challenger right on your heels pushes you to run faster, work harder and think deeper. You can also learn plenty from the successes and failures of a worthy adversary. Plus, competition just makes the game more interesting and a whole lot more fun.

Here are a few pointers:

1. Don’t be a copycat. I started my printing company Triumphant Concept with the full knowledge that there were other more well-established competitors already in the field. Instead of jumping on whatever trend they were touting, I went down my own path. 

2.Position strength to weakness

Even if your competitors has a better product his willing to sell it at lower price, you can still win. Every competing company as a weak point and that palaces  your Brand to outperformed.

Your competition may have a bigger budget and hundreds of employees, but don’t dwell on that. They don't have your passion or your know-how. They have nothing on your experience and the lessons you’ve learned. Just focus on your competitive advantage -- your secret sauce.

3. Ignore the competition (for the most part). According to ford  In the ‘90s, a rival company created a product that was similar to ours. I wasn’t concerned, because we were a leader in our particular niche. I ignored them, assuming my customers would clearly see the difference in quality.

4. Stay Lean

This is about maximizing value and minimizing waste. Value refers to feature a customers wants to pay for, while Waste essentially is every thing else. 

This means you must be in constant contact with your client and understand while they are buying your product.

5. Don’t underestimate the competition. 

Competitors may come in different shapes and sizes, but they have one thing in common -- they all want to beat you.

You may lose sleep over bigger competitors with their impressive cash flow, customer base and power, but smaller competitors can actually pose a bigger threat.

6. Go after large client: 

Large client can often result in more business and increase revenues which means more resources for marketing and hiring new employees. But large client can also be easier to service than smaller company.

7. Don’t play dirty. There’s no reason we can’t get along. Competing businesses can actually co-exist within a community and even cooperate on occasion. 

Even when a competitor pulls a dirty trick, like stealing your customer list, don’t retaliate. If your competitor is willing to stoop that low, chances are that customer service is not their top priority. Your customers will come back once they realize their mistake. Just take the high road with competitors.

8.Know your numbers

I'm surprise how many entrepreneur don't know their critical numbers that's can either make or break their business. Here are a few steps of the basic that every start up should tracking.

1. ACV (Average Customer Value) This refers to how much money the average customer spend with you over a given period.

2.CPA (Cst Per Acquisition) This is your cost every time you acquire new client.

3. ROT (Return On Investment) on marking companies

4.Break Even: This is the volume of sale you need to give the cost of making sale.  

 So don’t be afraid of competition -- just learn to deal with it in an advantageous way.