Competition and how to eliminate them.

Ever wondered how to eliminate your competition without lowering your prices? Tune in as I, Erin Olson, recount my eye-opening experience at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, where I discovered the secret to succeeding in business: focus on excellence. We'll unpack the dangers of competing on cost alone and learn why being the best at what you do is the ultimate strategy for setting yourself apart. Expect practical insights into maintaining healthy profit margins, maximizing your energy on self-improvement, and creating a unique market position that leaves competitors irrelevant. But its not all that you think... There is one major key to beating your 'competition,' God.

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Erin

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Welcome to the Quality of Life podcast. I'm Erin Olson, a wife, a mother and a serial entrepreneur. After starting three successful businesses, I've learned some hard lessons regarding the ins and the outs of starting and running a small business. My intention is to share my knowledge that I've learned from the School of Hard Knocks, so you don't have to learn it the hard way like I did Each week, I hope, to guide you to the next level in your business or in the business that you work in. So let's go. Hey guys, erin, here to get you from business idea to big business. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Speaker 1: 0:48

What would you say if I told you that you have no real competition? You'd say I'm full of it, right? Well, I'm sure you think I'm crazy, but I know that there's a way to make it so that knockoffs and competitors don't matter to your bottom line. Yes, they may still be there, but they are not going to be your real competition. I've done it and you can experience it for yourself and I can tell you how. But first story time, all right.

Speaker 1: 1:15

So last week I mentioned that we had a shop at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, back with our soap company years ago. Right with our soap company years ago, right? Well, we weren't the only soap shop there. We had competition. Ye olde soap shop, yeah, super catchy right. Every weekend we would either visit them in the covert way or send someone to kind of check out what they were doing and report back anything that they found that we could do. We tried to make sure that we were cheaper, that we had similar scents and styles and types of soaps and products, just so we wouldn't lose our competitive edge. Guys, it was an incredible time, sucker, literally. You had to walk for about a half an hour each direction to their booth in a completely different section of the fair, and I learned so many things from just doing that that I did differently in my next two businesses. That virtually eliminated my sense of competition. Seriously, all right.

Speaker 1: 2:19

So let's dive in to how to rise above the competition and to set the bar for everyone else to admire and reach for. Okay, so first, guys, I got to tell you you got to do the best, be the best. You know doing something, the best that you can, is the first step towards eliminating competition. Why? Well, you know, when your product or service is just okay, it leaves room for others to copy and to undercut you in price. Okay, guys, you know what. I'm gonna dial it back for a minute. I have all of my script written out about the four lessons that I learned on how to make sure that your competition doesn't matter, okay, so I am going to go off the cuff here.

Speaker 1: 3:05

Now let me ask you a question. Were you called to do this? I mean, really, if you think about it, if you're a believer, I know that the Bible says God gives you the desires in your heart, right? Well, this business is a desire in your heart, right? You know that this is what you're supposed to do. Yes, it's going to be tough. Yes, you're going to have people who are going to see what you're doing and try to copy you. But here's the deal If you were called by God to do this, then why would he allow competition to keep you from that? Friends? Let me just ask you something from that Friends, let me just ask you something.

Speaker 1: 3:48

This last week, I was in a mastermind for speaking and a group of friends got together that are all high achievers and one of the guys, who's a doctor, told us about a time when he was asked if he believed in God? And, of course, he said, yes, I believe in God. And then the guy who asked him that question said well, then you must believe in Satan, right? Okay, now this is getting deep, so let me brace you. And he thought about it for a minute and said, yeah, I guess I believe that Satan's there. He said that Satan's whole job is to keep you from doing what God has called you to do, keep you from God's plan. All right, I'm not going to preach here, but one thing that I got to mention is that if you are distracted by competition, that is not God. That is a distraction that is caused by someone else. When you start thinking about what are they doing and getting FOMO and all that stuff, you have to remember that is just distracting you. All of that energy that you are putting into researching what other people are doing and what other people are saying about you or what your quote competition is doing. You just have to remember that that energy is taking away from what you could be doing today to further your business. All right. So now that I've got that out of the way, I'm going to talk to you about a few things that can really help you to make sure that your competition is left in the dust.

Speaker 1: 5:16

All right, first and foremost, you do not want to be the cheapest person on the market. I am telling you this is a horrible strategy. Okay, having consistent sales, having the lowest price product, is not a great way to run your business. Number one your margins will shrink. Margin is just business lingo for the difference between what it costs to make your product or perform your service and what you charge your customers. Okay, that dollar amount or percentage is your margin, right? Okay, so if you have the lowest price on the market and you are competing against people who have the same sources or suppliers or cost of goods, that you do, that means that you're making less money, right, and I know that you're doing this all out of the goodness of your heart, but for crying out loud, we're trying to make money here in this business, right? Okay, so being the cheapest on the market is a horrible strategy. There's always going to be people who shop at Walmart and there's always going to be people who shop at Macy's, right? Some people? They don't care who they are buying their product from, they just want to spend the least amount of money and, yes, they don't even care if it's a great product.

Speaker 1: 6:30

But that leads me into the second thing that you need to consider. You need to be the best, and I already talked about this. But if your product is mediocre, that means that you are attracting that type of customer, the one who doesn't care about quality, and we are all about creating products that we feel good about and doing services that we feel good about doing. We've all bought products that have left a bad taste in our mouth, right? Let's not be that kind of person. So what makes you unique? Really? This is the game changer when it comes to you and your products and services.

Speaker 1: 7:07

What makes you unique? Like I said, there's always going to be the same products at Target and Macy's, and you know some people want the best and some people don't. So what makes you the best? Your story does your story, your experience and how you treat your customers and make them feel. That is the number one thing that is going to differentiate you between your product and service and ye olde soap shop. Down the way. Now, ye olde soap shop, they had a decent product, but their customer service was really lacking, in my opinion. Now, I'm sorry guys, I'm not trying to judge other people, because you know what that's their journey and not mine. But here's the honest to goodness truth If you are doing the best you can, you have a good product and you have a story and you tell that story and you make your customers love you. Because of your story and how you treat them, they will continue to keep coming back for more and more and that is the bottom line to success Having repeat customers and customers that tell everybody else all about your product and your service. So when you start having raving fans, then you will start to have people that will fight for you when other people take your product, copy it and then undercut you.

Speaker 1: 8:33

Now let me tell you about a story at hay chicks. So we had a product called the free up feeder. It is a wall mount hay feeder that we designed and invented. We were the first to the market with it and I will never forget the day that I walked into a trade show in Madison, wisconsin, and I saw a direct knockoff of what we had created for way less money. I was ticked off, let me tell you. I was like holy crap, this is a patented product and they're just knocking us off.

Speaker 1: 9:07

Ours sold for about $100. Theirs sold for about $50. And they were just knocking us off. Ours sold for about 100 bucks, theirs sold for about 50. And they were getting them made in China. We were making them here in the US, so they were actually making more money than we were.

Speaker 1: 9:18

But here's the deal Once we've told our customers all about how our product is made here and supported people here in America and how we came up with the idea that product. Yeah, they sold some, but the competition wasn't even a thing. And that was a really hard thing to wrap my head around. Every time that somebody would email us or text us or message us on social and they would tell us that somebody else was knocking off our product and selling it for way less, I just let it go, because I realized that when I am doing what I believe that I'm called to do, there is no such thing as competition.

Speaker 1: 9:59

So what about God? Right, I talked about him. Here's what the Bible says. There are a couple verses in the Bible that I know one you've for sure heard and that is Colossians 3.23. That says work willingly at whatever you do, as though you are working for the Lord rather than people. Work for God, not people. Do not seek their approval either. Let me just tell you that much. But here's something that, when I think about how distracted I became when I started focusing on my competition, this is what really spoke to me. It's Hebrews 12.2. Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on him.

Speaker 1: 10:50

Now, I know that in this market, you do have to keep up with what people are wanting, so you do have to do some research on your competition and really that research, if you can, I would pass off to somebody else so that you can focus on where you're going and not what other people are doing. If you can't afford to hire somebody to go and research your quote, competition, do a quick search, look for hashtags, look for other people in the area, see what they're offering, see their price points, so that you can be in the same ballpark. But, guys, don't focus on it. All right, guys, I know that this is probably not what you thought and you're probably focused way too much on what your competition is doing and it is distracting you from being your best, doing your best and moving forward with your business. Don't let that happen. Take hold of your attention and put it towards something that's good for you growing your business. All right, guys? Well, I hope that this helped you.

Speaker 1: 11:56

Even though I went totally off script, I hope that this really resonated with some of you out there, because I'm telling you there is no such thing as competition. You were called to do what you're doing. You know it and God knows it, so focus on that and grow your business. Guys, if you took any value from this, I ask that you will share it with all of your friends. Put it on social if that suits you, because you know what. I think more people really need to know what God says about doing business and how to get from your little business idea to big business.

Speaker 1: 12:34

Please share the show, guys, and rate it on whatever platform you listen to it on, and I appreciate you, guys, and I will see you next week on the Quality of Life podcast. See ya. Thanks for listening to today's episode. Be sure to check us out on the Quality of Life podcast. Thanks for listening to today's episode. Be sure to check us out on the Quality of Life podcast, facebook and Instagram pages and our website, thearenolsoncom, for downloads and more information. That is T-H-E-E-R-I-N-O-L-S-O-Ncom. Stay up to date by joining our email newsletter. Together, we can improve all of our quality of life.