You know those ads that say “there’s no competition” for their product or service? It’s meant to sound like a bold, confident claim, but, honestly, it sounds a bit silly.

Because guess what? There is competition.

Potential clients do have options, they often know they have options, and you won’t get very far pretending that they don’t.

You get a lot farther by understanding your competition, making yourself more visible, niching down, and ultimately leveling up.

In other words, eliminating the competition is less about ignoring or sabotaging them and more about giving yourself a little glow-up.

After all, why waste your time throwing shade when you can simply outshine them?
‍

Understanding The Competition

So who are you trying to outshine? Who are you competing against?

There are a few categories that all of your competition falls into. To illustrate, let’s use the example of the O.G. entrepreneurial venture – the humble lemonade stand.

Sweet! (And also, sour?)

Direct Competition

Lemonade stand “A” sells fresh-squeezed lemonade, stand “B” sells lemonade bought from the store, and stand “C” sells lemonade made from powder.

They might all be at different price points and different levels of quality, but they all sell basically the same thing, are marketing toward the same group of people, and are in direct competition with one another.
‍

Indirect Competition

On the same street, right alongside the lemonade stands, is an iced tea stand.

This iced tea stand is absolutely in competition with the lemonade stands, though the competition is indirect. If a potential customer wants lemonade, they have three places to choose from to get it, and this isn’t one of ‘em.

If a potential customer is simply looking for a cold drink on a hot day, now the iced tea stand is part of the competition.
‍

Other

There are loads of other things competing for your potential customer’s attention. Maybe the customer has lemons, ice, water, and sugar at home and can just “get someone in-house” to make it.

(Sound familiar? Yeah, it’s def. a common sales objection. Check out 3 more!)

Understanding these three main sources of competition empowers you to change the conversation.

For example, if you’re told that you’re too expensive and that there’s cheaper lemonade out there, you already know what the other stands are selling.

Now you know how you’re different and how you can justify your higher prices.

Think: “These are organic lemons,” or “Our lemonade is lovingly homemade.”
‍

Making Yourself Known

Your glow-up starts with knowing the competition. But you can be a big bright light and still be too far away to outshine a closer light source.

So what’s the next step? Making yourself known.
‍

‍

Building your internet presence, establishing yourself as an expert in your field, and staying at the front of your potential clients’ minds are all vital steps in this glow-up process.

But, wait, how do you do those things?

We’re so glad you asked!

It’s not just one thing, but a combination of a few, which work together to bring you those oh-so-desirable end results:

Creating and maintaining an engaging social media presence
Blogging about your field and projects that interest you
Using SEO to drive traffic
Freely providing value, think: a video on cocktail ideas using lemonade
‍

Niching Down

When we talked about the different types of competition, we saw how the pool could get so much bigger, depending on what the customer is looking for.

Finding your niche is one way to make the pool a little smaller.

“Wait, don’t we want lots of potential customers?!”

Yes, of course, we do!

But what we need is just a small handful that are ready to commit to us. And it’s a lot easier to get that handful if we happen to be exactly what they’re looking for and there aren’t dozens of other drink stands grasping for their attention, too.
‍

Whoa, that is one specific lemonade stand! We get how that could feel limiting, but we pinky-promise that it doesn’t have to be!

You always have the option to open it up to other things once you’ve found your niche, business is booming, and people start to get curious about what else you can do.

‍

Leveling Up

It’s in this same spirit that we encourage you to ~level up~ your skills to continue outshining the competition as time goes by.

Stay on the cutting edge of your industry by taking courses or taking on passion projects to pick up some new creative skills and hone the ones you already have.

While you’re at it, wake up that beautiful business brain of yours!

Your creative and technical skills are hugely important, of course, and a part of what makes you you, but it’s your business skills that will have the biggest impact on your bottom line and **on how much your art is seen.

For sure, a bigger paycheck and more exposure for your beautiful work have got to be motivation enough to learn a little more about the “business” part of being a small ~business~ owner.

Don’t cha’ think?

If you’re all like “HECK YEAH!” at this prospect, check out Business Bootcamp and take the assessment to see if you’re ready to level up, niche down, make yourself known, and eliminate your competition. Go get ‘em, tiger!
‍