OLDER POST CIRCA 2003 – REPOSTED: I find a lot of people that have great ideas and concepts, but they throw them out because they do some research, and find a plethora of competition. That’s a big mistake.
If there weren’t competition in an industry, there wouldn’t be a market. So, when you’re thinking about ideas, DO NOT plan your business by looking at your competition. Plan your business by using your mind and your own resources. Think about what you and other people would want as customers of your new business and build from there.
Only after you have created your business from the ground up, avoiding the influence of what’s already there, THEN look towards the existing market; what can be improved, what could be added, etc.
The reason for this method is twofold:
1) Finding competition when you first think up an idea can be disheartening, and you may start to make cloudy judgment calls when you feel inundated with competitors.
2) When you form your idea based on your competition, you’re confined to the strengths and weaknesses of them, and are only building on what they have already created. If you work from scratch, you are essentially inventing the industry, and it gives you the opportunity to be even more outstanding.
Mind you, I’m not suggesting ignoring competition, but looking at it only after you have built your own foundation. Otherwise, you’re trusting your foundation to your competitors, which definitely isn’t a good idea.
Bottom line here: Ideas are a dime a dozen, so don’t be stuck on using other peoples ideas. Industries are created by people that start from a clean slate and build their imagination from there. If you want to make it happen, you need to use your uniqueness, not blend in with the rest.