In business, competitors are a necessary evil; but they are welcome. Not because they are nice and we could sit down for coffee this weekend, but for the fact that they constantly push us to do better: each time we set out to work. That is, in essence, what capitalism was all about? How do we kick them out and make room for ourselves?

1.    Be bold: You thought this applies only to alpha-men, soldiers and rebels? It applies to businesses too. There is no place for the meek in the war fields of business. You either have it or you don’t. You make it or you don’t it. You either have the guts, or you don’t – in all the above cases you won’t survive, if you don’t. Being bold gets attention. Of course it raises your levels of responsibility (Since you need to catch-all with those outrageous claims), but it grabs attention, nonetheless.
2.    Incorporate the “10 times principle”: Simple, but yet profound. Cliched, but forgotten. All things being equal ( assuming you know what the customers want), go out of your and develop a system such that you can do whatever your competitors are doing at least about 10 times much better, faster or cheaper.
3.    Bring in the best practices and remain flexible: There are quite a few best practices are in use in similar or even other industries, world-wide. You could bring them all in and implement them for your business. Keep tweaking until you get it right and once done, incorporate these practices into your business systems. No matter what happens, don’t just stick to what you have in place now. By keeping your eyes and ears open; researching constantly and bring the best there could be – you will ensure that your competition is far behind you.
4.    Think 10 years from now and operate from there: Google is a trendsetter and works furiously for the future. Most other companies operate in a fire-fighting mode – they are more reactive than pro-active. They are looking at customers and competition instead of bringing trends in. This shift in vision is incredibly difficult to achieve. So what should a small business do? Three things – if possible innovate; if not, ideate; if you can’t do either one of those two or both then close shop and leave.
5.    Let them play the pricing game, not you: Yes, you heard that right. If their move is to undercut prices – they are asking for trouble. You don’t do any such thing. In fact, raise your prices all the more as a retort to this move and keep your customers informed about the value addition you offer, consistently and that they get what they pay for – you would, of course, get only those who wish to pay for it. You might miss out a majority of non-payers. But the effort, in the end, is much less on your part for the same amount of revenue. This is good for you because you dealt with lesser number of customers, for the same amount of money while ensuring top quality. Now who is smarter?

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