3 Ways to handle Business Competition

Every Business person knows that Competition is inevitable in Business.

Even if You are currently enjoying a monopoly in your niche, You still need to watch your back, somebody is coming for You pretty soon, well, except if your industry is not so lucrative to the point that your competitors have decided to leave the space for You.

You don’t PRAY away Competitors, You STRATEGIZE and get an ADVANTAGE over your Competitors.

And dont you dare think it is just business people that face competition o, even in your Job you have Competitors; both in-house and external. For that seat You have in that office, there are over 1,000 people who would gladly take the seat from You at a lower price and more value.. Well, that is story for another day.

So yesterday evening after it was apparent that Buhari was going to win the Presidential elections and take us to whichever NEXT LEVEL he has in stock, I switched back into FULL BUSINESS MODE… this time with some NITRO because this Jubril from Sudan has little or nothing to offer… I am actually looking forward to his vacation in London pretty soon.

So I was asking myself this question… since competition is inevitable, HOW THEN DO YOU HANDLE COMPETITION?

For now, I am able to come up with 3 ways..maybe I will add more to them later sha.

Without further ado, here are 3 ways to handle competition;

Join them
Scatter the table
Jump into a blue Ocean

Sounding somehow sey? 🙄 , let me break it down for You.

Join Them:

Have You heard the phrase “If You cannot beat them then join them” before?

That is exactly what You should do if You happen to find yourself in a fierce competition. Instead of de-marketing your products and reducing price, why not look at the value chain and see where You can fit in in such a way that your competitor becomes more like a customer or collaborator.

Let me give You examples, have You seen a long row of shops selling the same things before?.. If You visit some of the markets around, You will probably see a row of 5-10 shops all selling clothes, or food stuffs or electronics? I am sure You have.

What then happens is that each shop owner has to “HUSTLE” extra hard to get customers.

What if one of them is smart enough such that instead of joining in the hustle, he or she looks at the value chain and finds a very strategic point to key in.

Take for instance You are in the restaurant business and there are 5 other restaurants on your row, what if You start selling FOOD STUFFS in BULK?, what if You start supplying them SOFT DRINKS or TABLE WATER or some other raw materials they need for their business?

In this way, when they SELL, You are not envious of them because INDIRECTLY, You are selling too.

That is what I call

“IF YOU CANNOT BEAT THEM, THEN JOIN THEM”.

Let us proceed to the next one.

2. Scatter the Table

Have You heard of the term DISRUPTION?

That is the second approach You can use to handle competition.

So your business space or industry is undergoing fierce competition, can You think of a way to disrupt the industry.

In the street parlance, that is what we call Scattering the table that everybody is shaking.

Let me give You examples;

The founders of AirBnb for instance couldn’t have built an 8-Star Hotel to out-run the existing competition.

The Burj Al Arabs of this world are already offering LUXURY AT ITS PEAK… what else does a startup want to build that will provide a superior service?

However, with Technology, AirBnb and their counterparts in other industries have and are still disrupting the market for existing market leaders.

Now over to You, HOW CAN YOU LEVERAGE ON TECHNOLOGY to disrupt your industry..

That is what I call SCATTERING the TABLE that everybody is currently SHAKING..

And finally, You can;

3. Jump into a Blue Ocean

Well, I dont mean You should commit suicide o.

The term Blue Ocean is from the book Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim et al. You should read it.

According to the authors of the book, your current very competitive industry can be likened to a Red Ocean where Fishes are swallowing and biting another; Big Fishes swallow small fishes and bite the ones they cannot swallow.

We all know oceans are blue by default but the Red Ocean became red from the bloods of the the contenders, blood spilled from the bitings and crushing of each other. That is how the ocean became red.

Finding a Blue Ocean means exploring other un-tapped market spaces.. So You wake up one morning and discover your business ocean has become RED, what do You do? Explore other Oceans that are still Blue and once You find one, JUMP straight into it as fast as You can before the gladiators that made the current ocean red follow You into the new one.

That is what I call JUMPING INTO A BLUE OCEAN.. So You see I wasnt asking You to commit suicide by the way 😉 .. Just find yourself an ocean that is till Blue and dive straight into it.

Those are 3 ways I was able to come up with on how to handle Business Competition.

Like I said earlier, You cannot pray away competition in a lucrative market.. You can only gather ADVANTAGES here and there and OUT SMART the competition.

Cheers to your Business Success!!! 🙂

Your in this hustle,