Looking at the Competition

A common bragging claim some businesses have is that they never look at the competition.

This statement attempts to convey both a rugged individuals, a faith in one’s own product and a dismissal of the competitor.

While this may seem like confidence on the surface it is actually quite self defeating.

When it comes to successfully operating a business it is critical to keep your eyes wide open for what is working, what is not working, what trends are popular and what marketing strategies are working.

This involves looking at looking at all sources of information including competitors.

No, this does not mean that you seek to copy a competitor. Copying generally never works as the “copycat” never comes off as anything more than a weak derivative of the real thing.

What it does mean, however, is that you look at the strong points of your competitor and analyze why these strong points are working and how to integrate variants of them into your own approach.

Yes, it can be somewhat difficult at times to acknowledge that a competitor is doing something better than you are but an honest assessment of one’s business approach is far better than sitting in the proverbial dark about one’s shortcomings.

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