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By Henry Brown

Are you running a small business? If so, then you might think that your main competitors are other small businesses. However, this is not the case. Instead, your main competitors will be huge brands. For instance, you could be selling books. If that’s the case, then you will be competing with every business offering the same books. Unfortunately, that includes huge companies and marketplaces like Amazon or even eBay. Obviously, this is going to have significant ramifications for how you run your business. So, let’s look at how you can compete with the major players on the market.

Keep prices low 

First, you should think about how to keep prices as low as possible in your business model. This doesn’t mean that you should sacrifice the quality of service or the standard of the product that you deliver to customers. That’s just going to earn you poor reviews that we’ll look at more a little further down. But you do need to improve efficiency levels in your company. This can be as simple as exploring some of the key processes in your business model, saving you both time as well as money.

When you are working to keep prices low, you need to avoid undercutting your competitors by too much. This could trigger a price war and that’s a situation where there are usually going to be no winners at all.

Show some skin

Another great way to ensure that your small business doesn’t sink into the background would be to show some skin. This doesn’t mean what you might think. Instead, showing some skin is an industry term that means making your business more human. You need to prove to customers that they are not just one more cog in a far larger machine. There are lots of ways that you can do this. For instance, you might want to think about supporting a charitable cause. You can either set up your own charity or support a cause that is currently on-trend right now. For instance, you might have noticed small and large companies are throwing their weight behind supporting Ukraine.

Keep up connections 

You also need to make sure that you are keeping up the connections in your company. One of the problems on the market today with larger businesses is that it’s impossible to reach the companies and speak to a member of the team directly. Many large businesses only allow customers contact through email which can be infuriating for anyone who wants a direct response. To avoid issues here, you should make sure that you do set up your business to provide the right level of connectivity. To do this, you should find out more about IoT SIM cards. Using tech like this will guarantee that the chances of lost calls and missed connections with clients are significantly reduced overall.

Sell unique products and services

Find a niche product that your customers will fall in love with and want to buy over and over. If you have products that people can get their hands on absolutely anywhere, then your business may get lost. Think of revolutionary products that people want but don’t exist yet or improve an existing product so people think, ‘yes we need that in our lives’. A lot of customers love the idea of personalized products so you could make this an available service with your products. These will be sought-after all year around for birthdays and other special occasions. The same applies to services that you offer your clients. You need to stand out and think how your business can help when others have failed.

Find a USP

Finally, you need to think about finding the right USP in your business model. A USP is a unique selling point and it helps you stand out from other companies on the market, of which there are many. A USP can be anything from a fast turnaround to something like a unique product that we mentioned above. Don’t forget when you find your USP, you should make it clear to customers that this is something that your business can offer. It needs to be present in your marketing and promotions.

We hope this helps you understand some of the key strategies that you need to explore to ensure that you can compete with some of the larger players on the market. By taking the right steps here, you can guarantee that you do get the right results and gain fantastic levels of interest from customers.

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Henry Brown is an online marketing executive. When he isn’t talking shop, he’s roaming the streets of London, uncovering the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.