park and find things, they ran frequent sales, they had a better location, and they offered free popcorn. That’s right, the owner told me that their customers loved the fresh popcorn at the entryway and you could smell it in the parking lot. And that was something the Home Depot didn’t offer. That small difference helped them maintain their customer base. That and far more personal attention. They knew almost every customer by name in that tiny town of 13,000.

So that’s one way to compete with the big boys. When I sold the Yellow Pages, I once told another fearful customer, how would you like to be the only ad in the heading? They immediately replied that it would be terrific. I had to bring them back to the real world and exp

I’ve been an advertising consultant to thousands of businesses over the past 35 years. During that period, I listened to various companies bemoan the fact that another competitor was entering their marketplace. I asked them why that was a problem, and they usually explained how the new guy would probably take away some of their customers. If this appears to be a legitimate complaint, this article is directed at YOU! Let me tell you why and how competition could actually increase your business.

I was a Yellow Page consultant for 25 years before I started my own web-based business with my wife. I even wrote an insider’s book about my experiences during that quarter-century. One of stories in the book had to do with competition. A large local waterbed company used to run an expensive television campaign every Friday to promote their multiple locations. When I went to visit with my own waterbed account, he laughed when I asked if those commercials scared him. I was somewhat surprised at his reaction until he explained that his business actually shot up every weekend. People would go in the phone book looking for the other guy’s address and end up calling him, thinking that they were the ones on TV. Of course he instructed his people to tell the callers that they were the TV waterbed firm and then they came in droves. When the competitor finally began cutting back the ads, my account became upset because he knew that sales would trail off.

So, do you get the message? You can profit from other business’s advertising. The same is true for any media, including the Internet. Because this is a limited article, let me highlight just some of the ways you can benefit from the competition:

• It increases public awareness of your service or product (like my example).
• It allows you to see other aspects of your business that might be profitable.
• You can learn about new industry trends you didn’t know existed.
• You get to compare others current pricing and marketing schemes.
• It will make you better at what you do, by making you work harder just to keep up.
• You also won’t be as complacent and it forces you to be make needed changes.
• It gives you an opportunity to buy them out or have them partner with you.
• It gives the customer choices and you can see who is doing the best job of selling.
• If it’s a profitable industry, there is always room for one more business.

Therefore, you should never fear competitors. After all, you are one yourself. Do all the other guys fear you, or do they shrug their collective shoulders and go about their daily business? I doubt that they have time to worry about you when they have customers to service.

Here’s another example. When Home Depot came into a small rural town, the local Ace Hardware store saw no reduction in customers. The reasons were many: local loyalties, the Ace was easier to park and find things, they ran frequent sales, they had a better location, and they offered free popcorn. That’s right, the owner told me that their customers loved the fresh popcorn at the entryway and you could smell it in the parking lot. And that was something the Home Depot didn’t offer. That small difference helped them maintain their customer base. That and far more personal attention. They knew almost every customer by name in that tiny town of 13,000.

So that’s one way to compete with the big boys. When I sold the Yellow Pages, I once told another fearful customer, how would you like to be the only ad in the heading? They immediately replied that it would be terrific. I had to bring them back to the real world and expl

e local waterbed company used to run an expensive television campaign every Friday to promote their multiple locations. When I went to visit with my own waterbed account, he laughed when I asked if those commercials scared him. I was somewhat surprised at his reaction until he explained that his business actually shot up every weekend. People would go in the phone book looking for the other guy’s address and end up calling him, thinking that they were the ones on TV. Of course he instructed his people to tell the callers that they were the TV waterbed firm and then they came in droves. When the competitor finally began cutting back the ads, my account became upset because he knew that sales would trail off.

So, do you get the message? You can profit from other business’s advertising. The same is true for any media, including the Internet. Because this is a limited article, let me highlight just some of the ways you can benefit from the competition:

• It increases public awareness of your service or product (like my example).
• It allows you to see other aspects of your business that might be profitable.
• You can learn about new industry trends you didn’t know existed.
• You get to compare others current pricing and marketing schemes.
• It will make you better at what you do, by making you work harder just to keep up.
• You also won’t be as complacent and it forces you to be make needed changes.
• It gives you an opportunity to buy them out or have them partner with you.
• It gives the customer choices and you can see who is doing the best job of selling.
• If it’s a profitable industry, there is always room for one more business.

Therefore, you should never fear competitors. After all, you are one yourself. Do all the other guys fear you, or do they shrug their collective shoulders and go about their daily business? I doubt that they have time to worry about you when they have customers to service.

Here’s another example. When Home Depot came into a small rural town, the local Ace Hardware store saw no reduction in customers. The reasons were many: local loyalties, the Ace was easier to park and find things, they ran frequent sales, they had a better location, and they offered free popcorn. That’s right, the owner told me that their customers loved the fresh popcorn at the entryway and you could smell it in the parking lot. And that was something the Home Depot didn’t offer. That small difference helped them maintain their customer base. That and far more personal attention. They knew almost every customer by name in that tiny town of 13,000.

So that’s one way to compete with the big boys. When I sold the Yellow Pages, I once told another fearful customer, how would you like to be the only ad in the heading? They immediately replied that it would be terrific. I had to bring them back to the real world and exp

an profit from other business’s advertising. The same is true for any media, including the Internet. Because this is a limited article, let me highlight just some of the ways you can benefit from the competition:

• It increases public awareness of your service or product (like my example).
• It allows you to see other aspects of your business that might be profitable.
• You can learn about new industry trends you didn’t know existed.
• You get to compare others current pricing and marketing schemes.
• It will make you better at what you do, by making you work harder just to keep up.
• You also won’t be as complacent and it forces you to be make needed changes.
• It gives you an opportunity to buy them out or have them partner with you.
• It gives the customer choices and you can see who is doing the best job of selling.
• If it’s a profitable industry, there is always room for one more business.

Therefore, you should never fear competitors. After all, you are one yourself. Do all the other guys fear you, or do they shrug their collective shoulders and go about their daily business? I doubt that they have time to worry about you when they have customers to service.

Here’s another example. When Home Depot came into a small rural town, the local Ace Hardware store saw no reduction in customers. The reasons were many: local loyalties, the Ace was easier to park and find things, they ran frequent sales, they had a better location, and they offered free popcorn. That’s right, the owner told me that their customers loved the fresh popcorn at the entryway and you could smell it in the parking lot. And that was something the Home Depot didn’t offer. That small difference helped them maintain their customer base. That and far more personal attention. They knew almost every customer by name in that tiny town of 13,000.

So that’s one way to compete with the big boys. When I sold the Yellow Pages, I once told another fearful customer, how would you like to be the only ad in the heading? They immediately replied that it would be terrific. I had to bring them back to the real world and exp

It gives you an opportunity to buy them out or have them partner with you.

It gives the customer choices and you can see who is doing the best job of selling.

If it’s a profitable industry, there is always room for one more business.

Therefore, you should never fear competitors. After all, you are one yourself. Do all the other guys fear you, or do they shrug their collective shoulders and go about their daily business? I doubt that they have time to worry about you when they have customers to service.

Here’s another example. When Home Depot came into a small rural town, the local Ace Hardware store saw no reduction in customers. The reasons were many: local loyalties, the Ace was easier to park and find things, they ran frequent sales, they had a better location, and they offered free popcorn. That’s right, the owner told me that their customers loved the fresh popcorn at the entryway and you could smell it in the parking lot. And that was something the Home Depot didn’t offer. That small difference helped them maintain their customer base. That and far more personal attention. They knew almost every customer by name in that tiny town of 13,000.

So that’s one way to compete with the big boys. When I sold the Yellow Pages, I once told another fearful customer, how would you like to be the only ad in the heading? They immediately replied that it would be terrific. I had to bring them back to the real world and exp

park and find things, they ran frequent sales, they had a better location, and they offered free popcorn. That’s right, the owner told me that their customers loved the fresh popcorn at the entryway and you could smell it in the parking lot. And that was something the Home Depot didn’t offer. That small difference helped them maintain their customer base. That and far more personal attention. They knew almost every customer by name in that tiny town of 13,000.

So that’s one way to compete with the big boys. When I sold the Yellow Pages, I once told another fearful customer, how would you like to be the only ad in the heading? They immediately replied that it would be terrific. I had to bring them back to the real world and explain how the small listing would be overlooked entirely. The heading would be buried by the surrounding headings and his ad, regardless of size, would be overlooked. The larger headings like “Plumbing” have many pages and are never passed by. In fact, because of their shear size, the consumer is forced to flip many pages to find someone. So what have you learned so far?

Competition is part of the free-enterprise system that has helped the United States become a super-power and contributed to the wonderful quality of life most of us enjoy. The small, home-based, or local business, is still the backbone of the economy. It typically accounted for most of my directory accounts. Always remember that, when you got your business phone number, you instantly became the newest competitor. And how bad was that?