How to Deal With Competition in Business

You came up with this innovative idea, built a profitable business, developed a customer database. Everything is going smoothly, and success is just on its way. And then, all of a sudden, you notice that there is someone in the market who starts to offer a product or a service which looks and positions itself exactly like yours. It feels intimidating, isn’t it?

Usually, when a person or business begins to have remarkable success in the market, other individuals and companies start copying it. Unfortunately, this happens all over the world: somebody starts first with a great idea or style and then others naturally follow.

So if you are successful, you are going to be copied anyway. And, by the way, imitation is actually the sincerest form of flattery. 

However, if you get caught up in being concerned about what the market competition is doing and how they are copying you, it can become a really draining experience and a useless waste of your precious time.

So how to deal with competition in business, especially those who imitate your product or service?

Instead of bothering about these copycat competitors, you should be focusing on is what unique value you bring to the world, how you can grow your own business and how you can improve yourself and become even better at what is authentically special about you and the product or service you provide.

Everyone brings into what they do, their own energy, values, and personality. In essence, there is no competition. If you are authentic, people will naturally be attracted to you and the special gift that you offer to the world.

Truly successful people embrace their uniqueness and authenticity and communicate it in such a powerful way that nobody can ever copy them. They also make sure they become masters of their game.

Bruce Lee talked about this authenticity more than 40 years ago. He said, ‘Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.’

Think about it – how many people have tried to copy Bruce Lee since he died in 1973 or even before he died? Did anyone manage to become as successful in martial arts as Bruce Lee by imitating his style?

Remember, there is no competition to the person who is authentic. Authenticity is the key to standing out from the competition and achieving success in the market.

People these days are tired of pretension and therefore appreciate authenticity. What’s more, nobody can really hide or imitate someone or something without being revealed one day. Don’t forget that we are living in an extremely transparent online world.

So if you do try to become a copy of someone else, others will sense it and your success will be limited. A blind imitation of the market leader is a formula for achieving mediocrity and never really standing out in what you do.

And sadly, most people try to copy others who are already successful since they don’t know how to embrace their authenticity and uniqueness.

The people who stand out in any field of business and any industry are those who bring out their uniqueness to the world and communicate it with authenticity and without fear of judgment and restrictions. These high achievers do what they are passionate about with such mastery that they have no competition.

What you need to realize is that you were born with a unique purpose and a unique value that you can give to the world, a unique DNA, so you don’t need to imitate anyone. You can learn from other people, be mentored by them, admire them, you can even try to do exactly the same thing as they did, but decide to accomplish it in your own way, so it will never be a copy but another great project, product or service in your niche.

Everyone brings into what they do their own energy, background, experience and personality – so embrace that. 

The true strength lies in focusing on your own value. This will naturally attract the right customers, partners, employees, suppliers, and everyone else who matters in your life and business to you. People will always be appealed a lot more to a person who is their true authentic self and embraces their unique value.

Only through your own authenticity, you can build a personal or corporate brand that naturally attracts the right people to you.