STARTUP COMPETITORS – NEVER SAY – I HAVE NO COMPETITION

STARTUP COMPETITORS – NEVER SAY – I HAVE NO COMPETITION

❏ Today, I’m speaking on Startup Competitors: Never Say, I Have No Competition. No matter how big an advance your “widget” is, folks are “getting by” somehow without you! How they get by may be clunky, but that set of tools is getting the job done! That method of getting the job done is your competition!

One of my responsibilities as an executive coach is to help founders identify who their competitors are and what threat level they pose. Sadly, about 1 or 2 out of every ten startup and small business presentations I see state, “I have no competition.”. Another 3 or 4 out of 10 still need to state who all their competitors are. When I challenge them on either claim, I get various responses. Some state, “That company is in another space.” Others state, “They’re not doing the same thing we are.” Another will state, “They’re using Excel spreadsheets to do what we do.”.

Even if you’ve developed “teleportation,” you still have serious competition. Jet aircraft, cars, and trucks are competitors. Even those two appendages at the bottom of your legs—your own feet—are competitors. Your competitors are proven, inexpensive, multi-sourced, and “trusted.” Your teleportation technology is none of those. So please, no matter what you make or the service you provide, never say that I have no competition.

Startup Competitors: Startups – You Do Have Competition!

Teleportation is an extreme example, but I hope I got my point across. No matter how big an advance your “widget” is, folks are “getting by” somehow. That “somehow” is “proven.” It is of “known reliability.” The “cost” is well understood. Anything “new” will possess a certain level of “skepticism.” Your solution, you may believe, is the “best thing since sliced bread,” but you’re going to have to convince your buying public!

People are Creatures of Habit

In China 20 years ago, I traveled between two provinces with one of the “governors.” As we passed through the mountains, I saw thousands of workers with pickaxes, shovels, and carts. I saw only a piece of mechanized equipment used to build the roadway. I asked the governor why heavy earth-moving equipment wasn’t used to make the road through the mountains. The governor replied, “We’ve built roads this way for a thousand years, and it works.”

The moral of this story is: don’t assume that just because you’ve built a better widget, a customer will want to buy it. If they have a solution that works by solving their problem, they may not be looking for any solution.

I Want to Buy a “Hole”

I went to Home Depot and told the salesperson I needed to hang a large, heavy picture. He gave me a list of things I would need. A 3/8″ drill bit, a 1/4″ drill bit. 12-foot extension cord. A box of heavy-duty picture hooks. Ten feet of multi-strand picture wire. A pair of wire cutters. A pair of safety glasses. An aluminum bubble level. Total cost? About USD 100! All I wanted was a “hole”! I went back home and, with my hammer and a small nail, made two “holes” and hung the picture.

The message of this story. Your competition is sometimes not “elegant,” “fancy,” or “techie.” If your customer is only challenged infrequently with the problem your “widget” is solving and your solution costs lots of money, they’ll stick with a more straightforward “competitive” solution. Proven, simple, and cheap often “win the day.”

Conclusion

I hope this article, Startup Competitors – Never Say – I Have No Competition, has convinced you that regardless of how “awesome” your widget or solution is, you “always” have competition. The analysis you will go through by just writing down the competing solutions will be eye-opening.

When you’re thinking of starting a business, writing down the competing solutions from your startup competitors is where you must begin. Then, for each competing solution, write a list of providers and prices next to them. Then, look at the list and be honest about the “value” of “your solution.” How much cheaper is it? How many “man-hours” does it save? Your answer to these questions often might tell you news you don’t want to face. But it is better to face it and return to the drawing board than to waste time and money chasing the wrong horse.