Competition is healthy, staying ahead is even better! Being clever in your industry is what sets you apart. Your creativity and innovation are the tip of the iceberg. In today’s episode I chat about the 10 biggest ways you can F-Proof your business to stay ahead of the game. I hope you enjoy listening to this as much as I did recording it!
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Transcription
Hello, my awesome soul inspired friends and welcome to another episode of The Hayley Osborne Show. I am so happy you’re here listening with me.
Today I’m going to be sharing with you 10 F-Proof ways to stay ahead of your competition (in any industry)
I’m not the type of person to beat around the bush, if you know me or if you’re a client of mine you’ll know, I’m pretty black and white. No grey area and I just get straight to the point. What’s the objective **typa** stuff and let’s work out how I can best help you to fix it. There is no fluff here.
1. Your business depends on your ability to create and innovate.
I think it’s great to know your competition, (that cliché, “do competitive research”), yes this is important, so you don’t outprice yourself from the market essentially. But I also think it can be to your detriment.
The reason I think this is because:
Your business depends on your ability to create and innovate. To be original and true to yourself!
The only way you can really do this well is if you give yourself free creative reign to actually do it. This means putting your blinkers on essentially…and going wild! If you’re dead set following a stack of businesses that do what you do on your socials, and continually have their content pop up in your feed. It can actually be creatively stifling. STOP doing it. Either unfollow or HIDE THEIR SHIT.
Ok, so creative reign to stay ahead = freeing some stage of your week, ideally a day, to spend some time working ON YOUR BUSINESS. This is where you create, this is the time to be creative and to really fly and lean into yourself and your brand and how the 2 really intertwine.
What this looks like for you could be so so different but, I want you to think BIG PICTURE to get super creative. This is how you stay ahead of your competition AND, like the title of this episode, translates across every single industry.
Now, this may mean taking yourself out, somewhere away from your office to work in a different space, to really give yourself creative licence to perform at your absolute best. If I do this, anddddd as this podcast episode comes out I’ll be on my way to Sydney to really lean into working ON my brand, staying in my own lane and have a strategy day with my biz coach and mentor to PROPEL my business forward towards a 7 figure business. (SIDE NOTE: I love saying this out aloud as it just affirms exactly my intentions for myself continually telling the universe that I am prepping for this and BIG BIG things – little woowoo, but I’m learning more and more about this and leaning right in).
So, what I will also do as I am being intentional about working ON my biz is to dress in something that makes me feel my best, my most creative. I’ll 100% wash my hair so it’s fresh and bonkers curly and take a small amount of makeup (I really don’t wear a lot), but just a little to make me feel good.
Now, when I do these things, it actually subconsciously helps me to perform at my best. Funny, but very very true. If you haven’t tried any of these ideas, I strongly suggest you give it a red-hot go. Now I’m not saying you need to travel interstate (for me this time, that’s just where my business coach is) and what I know I need to do.
2. Be a student in other industries.
If you have friends or family that run completely different businesses to you, spend a day or 2 immersing yourself, like that annoying shadow, if they let you and take what you’ve learnt and implement it in your own business. This challenges your thinking every day and helps you to become better in your own zone of genius. I do this on the regular with my brother who runs a building company. We call it “chewing the fat” haha, but it’s so so so good. He’s wayyyy more ahead in his business and has been running his company for over 15 years, so knows a lot about business.
And true to this, they say: if you’re a builder, you’re not in the building business, if you’re a baker you’re not in the baking business. The business you’re actually in is the selling business. If you’re not selling, then it’s not a business. Again, we digress, but I just have A LOT to share with you and I get so excited and passionate about all of these topics, hence starting a podcast.
3. Put a rocket into your marketing efforts and go 10X.
Tell your story well and realise you will sell your service or product at the same time
Find a niche in the market via storytelling
Storytelling is your key to success. I have said this before and it may have even been on my last solo podcast episode, but:
“Selling on social media (and in your marketing) is like throwing water balloons at a porcupine” (I did not make this quote up, I just can’t remember where I read it).
- Understand the power of talking to the transformation. Like for me, when I talk about and tell the story around my marketing strategies. I paint a picture that looks and sound like this:
How would it feel to:
- Have a clear strategy for what you want to achieve within your business?
- Know exactly WHERE to spend your money to get the best bang for your buck?
- Generate a steady flow of new leads that turn into customers?”
- Understand what your offer is and tell this story.
- Understand what your invitation is going to be to your ideal customer AKA the transformation they will receive from working with you or buying your product.
- What are their objections? Note this down so you can include it in your marketing.
- What experience will you be providing them when they buy your product or service?
- Think about the transformation you will bring to those that buy from you and the benefits.
- What does your client receive from their investment with you? What is your offer?
- How do they act? How do they think about what they have just purchased?
Again, here we want to talk about the power in the transformation you provide, not the process in which you take to get there.
4. Continue to update you!
Your physical space and your digital space.
Think about certain ways upgrading parts and pieces around you in your office might make you feel? For example, I have a phone stand which takes my mobile off being flat on my desk. I also have this heavy luxury marble round disk on my desk that has all my little necessary things on it. Like lip balm, tissues, hand cream, the remote for my neon sign and this keeps all the clutter in one spot, which aesthetically, for me, makes me feel good. OR if you have a bricks and mortar store, something as simple as a fresh coat of paint can do wonders.
Other ways to upgrade is your digital space. Your website, refresh the images, update the copy, add new testimonials, just to freshen it up.
Simple steps make a huge difference to the way you stay ahead of your competition.
5. Nurture your current customers.
The fortune is in the follow up. Love on them. Make them feel special. Because they are!
6. Get your crystal ball out and do some serious research and development.
When you have a plan and pipeline for growth, you’re already leaps and bounds ahead of those that stand still. It’s important to stay up to date with developments in your zone of genius, use your crystal ball to follow consumer trends, and your income/profit to invest in new technology. This is where you will have a clear idea of where you want to be in one, three and five years’ time. Crystal ball and goal setting!
Last week I attended a lunch where David Koch was the keynote speaker and he spoke about the R&D sector in terms of where it was at with the largest companies in business today, specifically around saying:
If someone had have told me 20 years ago:
- The biggest vehicle company in the world would not own any vehicles, I would have called bull shit…UBER
- The biggest company in the property industry today does not own any property…again I would not have believed them…AirBnB
- AND finally the number one buinsess within the film industry does not produce any films, I would have called them out…NETFLIX”
7. Continue to grow your offer.
Add new things into your repertoire. As you move forward in your business you will organically discover what these look like. For me, I could never have predicted I would have my own podcast when I started my business, but here we are, and it fits so well.
8. Flexibility is everything as a business owner.
Nimble is the best attitude to have because the market is changing, digital is changing and most importantly, our customers are changing in the way they are interacting with businesses and their purchasing behaviours. So, it’s important to keep you finger on the pulse.
9. Don’t compete.
Just be better at the thing it is you do, your zone of genius and have a crackingly great strategy.
10. Do the thing before you’re read.
Done is better than perfect.
To recap
The key things I have covered today on 10 F-Proof ways to stay ahead of your competition (in any industry)
- Know your competition and create and innovate
- Be a student in other industries.
- Put a rocket into your marketing efforts and go 10X
- Continue to update you! Your physical space and your digital space.
- Nurture your current customers.
- Get your crystal ball out and do some serious research and development.
- Continue to grow your offer
- Flexibility is everything as a business owner
- Don’t compete
- Do the thing before you’re ready
That’s a lot of good stuff for you and I hope I’ve inspired you to make some actionable changes to stay ahead of your competition in a really clever and unique way. Be your own driver leaning into yourself and what that looks like, giving yourself that creative licence and just going for it.
I’m here for it and I am here for you!
AND that, very much concludes this episode my lovely friends and thank you so much for listening.
If you have any questions about anything I’ve said, feel free to drop me a DM on Instagram @socialsoulmedia which is where I hang out the most. I’m always up for a great chat. A big thank you for loving on this podcast, it means the world to me.
xx Hayley
