How To Choke Your Competition

Your competition is focused on winning.  Their goal is to get your customers while keeping their existing customers happy.  This works great for them, but not so good for you.

If you want to make your startup successful, then you have to think like an aggressive competitor.  You have to understand that your business idea and service is only one-third to one-half of the business value.  The real value is your customers and the cash flow that they will provide.

Being aggressive is different than being in your face and loud.  That is being obnoxious and belligerent and other than serving as a divergence for your competitors it has no lasting value.  In order to be aggressive you must be strategic.  You have to pick a strategy that works for you, your market, your customers and your future.

Picking a strategy is a tough thing to do in business.  It will require you to analyze your business, market sector, customers and competitors.  Study them, know them and then act on what you have learned.  Waiting too long to act is just as bad as not acting at all.

Ninjas studied their objectives and knew them in detail long before they launched their assault.  You have to do this too.  Know the potential strategies so that you can know the correct actions to take on a day to day basis.  Failing to prepare means that you are ok with not achieving your goals and your dreams.  If you are ok with that, then you should stop now because you will lose interest in this endeavor as soon as it gets tough. 

Ninjas and successful entrepreneurs welcomed the challenges and obstacles that confronted them.  They prepare for their missions and goals.  They vision success and practice the skills that they will need to succeed until they become instinct.

Once you have identified your strategy, take aggressive action and implement it.  Figure out the major tasks and activities that will be needed to make your strategy a reality.  Keep going and do not stop, no matter how hard it gets.  Be focused.  Be flexible and be steadfast. 

You can choke your competition and get their customers by having a strategy and a plan of action.   Give these new customers value that they cannot get elsewhere.  Your competition will ignore you at first, but after a few customers migrate to you , they will start paying a lot of attention to you and what you are doing.  That is good.

Now that you have their attention, keep applying the pressure.  A good choke is based on pressure that is applied relatively slowly and continuously.  Eventually your competitor will pass out.  A ninja can provide a blood choke or an air choke.  They both mean that the competitor will pass out.  You can do this too.

A blood choke will cut off the life's blood of a business - cash flow.  Get customers to give you cash instead of giving it to your competitor and you have impacted their cash flow.  An air choke cuts off the positive airs of PR and customer relations.  It is very similar to the mudslinging and negative campaigning of politics.  Be careful here because this can backfire.

Get your competitor to struggle while you apply the pressure.  This means that they start to react without planning.  As long as they are reacting, you are in control.

Art Espey is the business ninja.  He is the founder of 4Steps2.com.  Art led a company to the Top 100 in its industry nationwide.  Follow these principles to lead your business to success.  Art can be contacted at www.4steps2.com or 800.474.3610.