Nibletz Staff
The biggest obstacles to starting a business are not financial or logistical. I think the biggest obstacles are psychological. Many people dream of starting a business, and they’ll endlessly go on about it to friends and family. But, for whatever reason, they’ll never actually take the plunge and get it done.
One of the reasons for this might be the fear that the existing companies are probably already doing a better job. While it’s true that large companies do often do a good job, that doesn’t mean there isn’t space for you to introduce something innovative. Often people aren’t all that attached to the big brands – with certain exceptions – and want a small company to meet some niche need. So what can startups do to compete?
Consolidate Your Systems
Technology has been, and will continue to be, a great equaliser. Over the last few years, IT solutions have stepped up a notch. In the business setting IT has gone both mobile and into the cloud. This has meant that employees can access company wide solutions no matter where they are. And they can do all this for a fraction of the price it cost in previous decades.
One recent innovation is consolidation. IT software companies recognise that the job of IT should be to simplify business processes. For startups, the cost of administrations can be particularly burdensome. Paperwork takes you away from doing the things that your business does well.
Now you can integrate your back room with your frontline systems. For example, you can use IT to improve the way your office communicates with frontline engineers. Mobile allows engineers to receive job updates on the go. This stops you from having to fill out endless timesheets or make annoying repetitive phone calls.
Also, thanks to GPS systems, mobiles allows you to track how far your engineers have travelled to various jobs. In this way, you don’t have to record mileage and process extra data. Software will do all that for you. Just visit Job Logic for more details.
Differentiate Your Product
People often think that differentiation means that you have to produce a product that is different to what’s already out there. But I don’t think this is true. I think differentiation means making a product that has the illusion of being different.
Think about why certain brands are more desirable than others? Often it doesn’t come down to product quality or uniqueness at all. It just comes down to how we perceive that company. Even for things like toothpaste, we’re more likely to pay over the odds for a brand we recognise instead of the much cheaper generic option. We do that even if the product itself is identical.
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to differentiate yourself. You just need to capture your audience’s imagination. As a small company, you can build a niche appeal. It’s actually sexy to get a product from a smaller producer than to have something that’s just like what everyone else has.
