words Alexa Wang
Creating a competitive edge for your small business can be a little difficult if you’re only thinking about your competitors and not yourself. Thinking about the current market as a whole and what you can potentially add to it so that you get a bigger slice of the pie helps paint a much clearer picture of how you can gain that competitive edge.
To fully understand the market, you need to closely monitor a lot of different variables, as succeeding relies heavily on your ability to adapt swiftly.
Always Make It Convenient
One of the things that successful companies focus on is the convenience they provide to their customers. Making the products/services available and easy to view and access makes it much easier for the customer to make a decision. Businesses focus on every step of the transaction process, and they sprinkle in as much convenience as they can along the way. If a customer is ready to pay, try to provide them with any method of payment they prefer and ensure that no issues come up during the payment process.
Learn From Your Competitors
Going up against other businesses that are much more successful might seem intimidating at first, but that’s only until you realize that you have access to the blueprints of success. Studying what your more successful competitors currently do helps you understand which areas of your business you need to improve and how you can gain a competitive edge over them in the market.
Prioritize Safety And Security
The safety and security of your business should always be a top priority. One way to ensure this is by conducting a UCC and lien search regularly. A UCC search helps you identify any potential issues or liabilities related to your business’s assets, while a lien search helps you uncover any outstanding liens against your company. You should also invest in strong cybersecurity measures to protect your business and customer data from cyber attacks. Not only does this protect your business from potential financial losses, but it also helps build trust with your customers.
Provide Relevant Information To Your Customers
Many small businesses make the mistake of assuming that the customers can find the information they require elsewhere. The thought of placing the relevant information on their platforms never crosses their minds, and that’s a big mistake. Nowadays, businesses that offer a constant flow of information that’s relevant to the products they offer. These businesses have a higher chance of succeeding when compared to a company that doesn’t. Creating blog posts also attracts a lot of new customers that are simply surfing the web for information. If you utilize that correctly, you can potentially convert their clicks to transactions.
Technology Is Your Greatest Weapon
Gaining a competitive advantage as a small business has never been easier as technological advancements are a lot more common now. Many companies have found success from the release of a new product or just a new software update. As mentioned by the technology gurus over at Terminal B, the key to maintaining that edge is to quickly overcome any IT issues before they have a chance to affect your business negatively. Having a strong in-house IT department isn’t necessary, though, as many companies, regardless of size, outsource their IT needs.
Keep An Eye Out For Trends
Trends provide a huge boost to your small business’s success over a short period. Utilizing them to your favor is a huge opportunity that’s more rewarding if you jump aboard the bandwagon faster. While some trends are predictable due to their seasonality, most of them are extremely unpredictable and appear out of thin air. When you see that there’s a trend on the rise, try to make the best of it by coming up with a creative way to implement that trend in a way that promotes your business or your products.
Maintain Consistent Branding
Creating a solid brand image for your business is an essential prerequisite for gaining a competitive edge in the market. It’s very difficult for your business to grow if your core customer base isn’t able to identify you from a few visual queues. Unifying your business’s packaging, color, and font across all your platforms makes it very easy for your business to be identified. A simple exercise you can do to improve your business’s branding is to think of how you perceive the most successful businesses out there. Thinking of the visual queues that prompt you to think about them helps you understand what you need to do to improve your branding.
Interact With Your Customers
Being a smaller business in a market with some big fish may come with a few competitive disadvantages, but it also has its perks. Customers love when they feel valued, and there’s no better way to show them that than interacting with them frequently. Doing this over social media platforms indirectly markets your business to customers looking for a business that prioritizes customer-relations. This also helps you get better feedback while also helping you build a loyal customer base.
Before attempting to gain a competitive edge on your competitors, make sure that your business meets the standards that your competitors offer. Many small businesses have succeeded in gaining that competitive advantage; however, they lost it very quickly as their business wasn’t ready to provide the quality required to maintain it.
