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When better is no longer good enough
30 May, 2007
By Stuart R. Crawford |
For the longest time I was led to believe that you had to be better than the next guy to get ahead in life. Well, this is not the case in the business world. The better sports team often wins championships. Look deeper, however, and you will find that they do things differently. They may be playing defense differently or offering their players a different practice routine. The point is that the successful teams and companies that find a unique niche will win.
One of my mentors told me once that in order to succeed in business, you need to work smarter, not harder. The smart business owners of small business IT companies find a way to work smarter and get paid for the value that they bring to the business or clients and not for the hours that they put in.
When your business can develop a niche or unique service or product offering that is not available in the marketplace, doors will begin to open for you. What can you do today that will give you a competitive edge in the marketplace? What solutions can you offer your clients that other small business IT organizations are not offering to small businesses? It could be something as simple as offering a 24/7 help desk where clients can call in at any hour to get service for their company or something around offering a complete flat rate service where you can fully take care of their needs for a low monthly fee. There are many ideas out there that many small business computer consulting firms are not even aware of, and if you are able to generate these ideas before the competitors, you stand a much better chance of winning in the marketplace.
Competitive advantage comes from being different, not from being better than the other guy. Products and services come second. You need to compete on uniqueness. This is the true formula for success in today's high-paced and competitive small business environment. You don't get there by doing things a little better. You get there by doing things completely different. Surprise your clients. Don't just give them what they want; over-exceed on everything that you deliver to your clients.
I was in a seminar once with Andrew Barber-Starkey, a well-respected business coach from Vancouver, and he mentioned in his seminar that you must always set the bar high -- higher than you can ever believe -- and aim for it. Now, what normally happens is something like this: We set the bar low and achieve it, and say to ourselves "Okay, I hit my target, now I can coast." Or even worse "set the bar low and deliver on it." Wow, that is something that will never motivate your employees, telling them to pick just the low hanging fruit. In Andrew's talk about setting the bar high, if you achieve only 85 per cent, you are still further ahead from the guy that set the bar too low and achieved it.
The true success stories in the small business computer support business are the ones that play in a different league, by offering services and solutions unique to the market, setting the bar high, and being first to market and develop their solution while clients are paying them.
Where do you want to play? On the extra mile where traffic is light and you can go as fast as you want. or with the rest of the pack? The choice is yours.
Stuart Crawford is a business leader in the Calgary, Alberta small business computer consulting market. He has taken his best practices of success in this market and is sharing this with other IT consultants throughout the world. He can be reached at scrawford@itmatters.ca. Stuart also manages the Canadian Small Business IT Website Show at http://www.smallbusinessit.ca. Stuart recently completed his first book on computer challenges for the average person, visit http://www.takingnotes.ca for more information.
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