Competition

How focused on your competition are you?  Do you check in on them daily, weekly, or monthly?  Do you borrow from them or make decisions based on their actions?

We rarely follow competitors in any of our markets. And when I say rarely, it’s maybe once per year. 

This is not to say that we think it’s a bad idea to check in on them or even follow them closely. We’ve had competitors do that with us and it’s worked out really well for them. We’ll do our annual look at what they’re doing and we’re flattered by the similarities in their marketing terms or even their product offering.

I find it more fun and more exciting though to be creative and think out of the box when doing product development or marketing. I want to be the kid at the beach who is totally consumed with building the best sandcastle per his/her imagination and not constantly comparing mine to the others.

Yes, we can learn from what others are doing, but ask yourself if other entrepreneurs can learn from what you’re doing.

Business should be fun and focusing on the competition somehow takes that away from me. 

What do you think?