Taking Advantage of Weak Competitors

We've been interviewing small business owners and managers about the impact of the recession on their businesses.  As we noted in a post last week, a sizable minority of those interviewed believe their businesses will continue to be successful despite the weak economy. 

We call this group optimistic small businesses.

One reason these firms are optimistic is they believe they are positioned to benefit from weaker competitors.  They see these weaker firms facing financial problems, cutting staff, reducing their service or quality levels or going out of business. 

An interesting example comes from an expensive, private elementary and middle school.  We expected to hear that their enrollment was down due to people choosing to send their kids to free public schools.  And while they have lost students because of the economy, their applications for next fall are the highest they've ever been.

The reason is their key competitors - public schools - are facing budget problems and cut backs.  Many public school parents in their area are concerned about the declining quality of public school education. 

The private school is doing a soft PR campaign talking about the quality of their education and their plans to add staff and new programs.  They want their target market to know that unlike their competitors, they are increasing the quality of their product.

Another example comes from a big company.  Last week I got a direct marketing email from Staples saying that Office Depot plans to close 112 stores in North America through 2009.  The email has in big block letters "You Can Always Count on Staples" and points out that while others are closing stores, Staples continues to expand. 

Unlike large corporations, most small businesses don't like talking about taking advantage of weak competitors.  But it is a business reality and for stronger firms an opportunity. 

Comments

[Dr Wright]

I think this is a great idea and the beginning of the year is a great time to look at your competitors and see what they are doing in terms of how YOU can leverage that. I know I am going to do that!

Dr. Wright
The Wright Place TV Show
www.wrightplacetv.com
www.twitter.com/drwright1

[Dan]

If you would like a tool to manage your small business activities and Projects, you can use this web aplication:

http://www.Gtdagenda.com

You can use it to manage and prioritize your Goals (for business but also in other areas of your life), Projects and Tasks. It has a Checklists section, for the routines and repetitive activities that any business has to do. Also, it features a Schedules section and a Calendar, for scheduling you time and activities.

Some features from GTD are also present, like Contexts and Next Actions.

And it's available on the mobile phone too, so you can access it from anywhere.