The second of a series of six strategies; today’s article will discuss the business aspect of the six strategies help give you an edge over your competitors and help you build your own web empire.
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Image credit: Michael Dawes
The Business Strategy
Research your idea. See if there’s a demand. A lot of people have great ideas, but they don’t know if there’s a need for it. You also have to research your competition. – Magic Johnson.
Setting up your own web company is the easy part of the process. Making progress is a whole new ball game. It is a cut throat business and everyone wants a piece of the pie. The most important thing you should concentrate on doing is getting the interest of clients so that they will hire your services for their projects. Everyone is fighting for the same piece of meat, and you must quickly learn the art of building your company portfolio and creating a good name for it so that you have an edge over other competitors.
Cater to the Clients’ Needs and Wants
To ensure that you are successful in winning the bid to work on a project, you should take extra care when reading the brief. If you don’t, you might end up spending time and effort on something the client will not take an interest to. However, it isn’t just about giving the client what they want but knowing their needs as well. The trick is to give them what they both want and need. It isn’t easy, but with time and experience, it will start to become second nature.
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Work Together for a Better Future
The World Wide Web is a market that needs to be shared. Everyone plays a part, no matter how big or small, in continuing to make the web interesting, informative and fun. Google for example, created several useful products for the web and allows others to build on them all for the sake of improving the web for users. Likewise, when you work with your staff or people in the same company, working harmoniously together will increase productivity and benefit everyone.
The world doesn’t belong to one company but to all. The quest for the web world is like the hunt for an animal in that everyone covets a share of the quarry. The quest for the web world is also like crossing a river in the same boat in that everyone gets a share of the benefits if the crossing is successful. If the crossing fails, everyone suffers.
Protect your Work
Be careful of being too open about your designs or projects developments, not everyone plays fair in the business world. Like an animal’s natural instinct to protect its own body and to gain momentum by crouching towards the ground before propelling towards the attacker, a smart fighter will hold out until the right moment before striking his opponent.
Ensure that the quality of your work is top notch, but also be careful not to be too complacent and gloat about what you’ve done. Keeping your progress a secret will protect your project from possible vultures looking for an easy in.
Image credit: EricMagnuson
You’ve got to look for a gap, where competitors in a market have grown lazy and lost contact with the readers or the viewers. – Rupert Murdoch
Nurture your talents
Everyone can be creative, but you need to be able to harass their potential. A good employer will be able to recognise talent and allow the creativity to blossom under their nurturing and guidance. Think of each member of your creative team like a bonsai tree. In order to make each bonsai beautiful and unique takes a lot of time, effort and nurturing by the gardener. If you give the bonsai too much water without control, it might not reach its peak. Likewise if you deprive it of water too often, it will not be able to blossom. Even as it grows, in order to produce an impressive work of art with the bonsai, you need to preen the leaves, use wires to form its shape and constantly care for it and guide it.
Employers who know how to pick the right people with high aspirations and allow them to grow and bear fruit will be able to benefit from their development.
It is a Dog Eat Dog World
Image credit: Avant Gardenias
When doing business, you cannot afford to be soft-hearted. Think with your head not with your heart. With friends, if you see them make a mistake or notice their flaws, you would help by correcting them and help them to overcome bad habits. However, in the business world, it can be harsh and cruel but the fact of the matter is; it is a dog eat dog world. If you reveal your opponent’s weakness to him and allow him to remedy that flaw, he might not be as polite and giving towards you as well and you might find yourself at the losing end eventually.
Further Reading
- Seven Tips to Outlast, Outsell and Beat Your Competition by Kim T. Gordon
- How to win over your competitors’ customers! by Lorin Neikirk
- The Art of Driving Your Competition Crazy by Guy Kawasaki
- Tactics to Beat Your Competition by Vadim Ktelnikov
- Are We Programmed to Be Competitive? by Jessica Mitchell (An intriguing read)
Hungry for More Episodes of Six Strategies?
This is just the second part of the series of Six Strategies, but I hope you’ve found this episode both interesting and inspirational. Do look out for the next part of this series, The Leadership Strategy.
We’d also like to hear what your secrets to winning bids are? Do share with us in the comment box below. We also value your comments and feedback. Please leave your thoughts regarding this article so that we may improve the quality of our content.