How to Stand Out as a Company
by asking yourself
THESE 16 QUESTIONS
What does it take to succeed as a small business?
Undoubtedly, you’ve read tons of interpretations and opinions from those that have broke through the ceiling on what’s required. The secrets to success in the opinion of someone who has “made it” are always a funny thing. There’s always something new to learn or a different mentality to uphold. Some preach the idea of constantly dreaming of success while others say it is the focus of improving your product/service, while many others will say it’s about learning how to micromanage your money. There are even those that fall on the side of great marketing or great Denver SEO. The truth is that there is no real secret and every person that has made it has always had their own specific approach, even in the smallest of manners, that have set them apart and led to their success. Some try never before seen tactics where as others have fallen in love with the smallest parts of a tried and true process to the point of perfection. Really, when it’s all said and done there is no one secret to success that will suddenly change everything. The secret to your own success is finding out what makes you unique and embracing that part of your process to create something built out of what makes you special. Far too often we are caught stranded, outside of our own world and the natural flow of our own process being sucked into the triumphs of others and how they accomplished this. What we don’t tend to realize is how much we need to embrace our own natural process to accomplish what’ve set out to accomplish. A number of successful people have made it big by their own personal genius traits. Some by means of brilliant marketing, brilliant small tweaks to already big ideas, and some by brilliant networking. Again, there’s no secret formula to figuring out what exactly works for you but by dedicating yourself to some fairly scrutinizing self-analysis you might just be able to figure out what your uniqueness is and finally get over the hump.
Here’s some questions to ask yourself to get to the bottom of what makes you so unique. If it helps, think of these more as thought experiments than anything to get you on the path of identifying what it is that makes you different.
Are you unique? What makes you unique?
Are you unique? What makes you unique?
This is meant to be a general question but definitely gets the juices flowing as to start thinking about, even in the smallest way, what might set you apart. Of course, this is not the easiest thing to do but a good way to start is by creating a list of things that might set you apart. From there you can narrow it down more and more until you are set upon something that you do differently from everyone else.
Can you demonstrate in an easy way what makes you better or different?
Can you demonstrate in an easy way what makes you better or different?
Easily one of the most important questions on the list. This is important because you may be able to create a list of intangibles but can this be communicated clearly. If potential clients can’t understand what makes you different then are you really different in a way that provides value or just different in a way that takes their money in a incomprehensible manner?
Do you provide quality irregardless of price?
Do you provide quality irregardless of price?
Always an important question to ask. Mainly, how is it that you provide quality to someone seeking your services or product. This is a basic concept broken down by a monetary criterium. Maybe it is price that sets you apart or are your higher prices for specific reason that can be explained due to your incredible originality or meticulous approach?
Can you express in 10 words or less what your value is?
Can you express in 10 words or less what your value is?
Again, being able to provide your value in an easy to understand way while also not overcharging for what your value is? Everyone’s looking for a deal at the end of the day but if your quality requires a higher price then is it worth that price tag?
Do you backup your quality of products or services?
Do you backup your quality of products or services?
Just a potential quality of your company to consider. This may not seem incredibly unique as you’ve probably heard of many other companies that exclaim their incredible customer service but the question here is do you back it up enough to make a unique quality. If you do have a smaller business it does make it somewhat easier to differentiate yourself by your unique customer service being that you can put a focus on each and every client rather than them getting lost in the shuffle. Not that this is not possible for larger companies but it is easier to focus on when you have less people to deal with.
Do you give the impression that you've been around for a while and intend to be around for longer?
Do you give the impression that you've been around for a while and intend to be around for longer?
Your attitude can be everything. If you can reasonably show to clients and potential clients that you are invested in a long term partnership that will be maintained through thick and thin, this could label your company with a unique quality of being someone great to partner with and looks forward to securing everyone’s future rather than just their own (making for a great selling point as well).
Are you willing to go the extra mile?
Are you willing to go the extra mile?
This truly is a unique quality while also being a risky one. Especially for those that are still in the smaller or growing phase of business, it is hard to balance that over the top service while actually utilizing every minute available for profit that can grow your business. There are those that do it though and if this is something that you know you do then by all means emphasis this as a unique quality of your company. Be careful not to overtly advertise this though but it should be used in special cases to reinforce your long term goals.
If you went out of business would there be people that cared?
If you went out of business would there be people that cared?
An important question being that if you can come to the conclusion that people would miss you business then you will be able to dive into why they would miss you business. At the bottom of this is yet another reason that your business is unique.
Why does your company exist?
Why does your company exist?
You’ve read this many times before more than likely albeit this is generally for personal motivation but aspirations and goals are a key motivator to success. These can also help you define what makes you unique because your purpose might be different than anyone else. Are you a tech company that uses its funding to create more gadgets with the ultimate goal of using a percentage of profits to rebuild dilapidated housing in low-income communities? Emphasis this because it is unlike anyone else.
What problems do you help your customers solve?
What problems do you help your customers solve?
This kind of ties into the idea of purpose as well. Maybe you use a different way to help solve an old problem or you solve a completely new problem that only arose because of certain conditions created by new technology.
Why do customers trust your company over your competitors?
Why do customers trust your company over your competitors?
Are you already established but having trouble breaking through to the next level? Time to break down and analyze. What have you done time after time that has kept your loyal fan base and are they apart of specific market? This can help get to the bottom of what makes you unique in the eyes of actual consumers rather than just a subjective view.
What makes me better than my competitors?
What makes me better than my competitors?
Do you seem to beat out your competitors no matter the situation and everyone seems to be flocking to you even though you’re newly established? It’s now time to analyze what’s giving you that competitive edge so that you can fully utilize this advantage to take your business to completely different level.
What is your brand’s personality?
What is your brand’s personality?
As we know from everyday life, personality dictates our persona of people as in whether we decide we want to spend more time around a person or not have anything to do with them at all. This also rings true in business. Your business personality can set your apart from every other competitor.
Is this something I would do for free?
Is this something I would do for free?
Much research has been done on the idea of what passion can for a person in a work environment. Many times it’s found that when someone has a passion for something it can elevate them to entirely different level despite how much more intelligent a counterparts might be. Passion is the unbridled characteristic that can completely change the quality of work. So the question looms, are you willing to do what you currently do for free? If yes is the answer then you could potentially be ahead of where all your competitors are already at and you have that unique quality that sets you apart from everyone else.
What’s the part of your job you love the most?
What’s the part of your job you love the most?
Sometimes your uniqueness can be defined by a love of little parts of the process. So what part of your job is it that you love so dearly? It can literally but defined by one specific part as long as what you do so differently with that one little part makes a big change that could improve things for clients.
What do you do that’s difficult to imitate?
What do you do that’s difficult to imitate?
This is pretty easy to see through as far as what sets you apart but can be a key to figuring out what makes you unique. What is it that you do that no one else could do? It may take some time but if you’ve seen some success then there’s probably something there that sets you apart in some way. Try thinking outside the box for this one and maybe refining a few times to really get to the base of it.