Who Are Your Competitors And How Do You Get Rid Of Them?
The Decorators Growth Club (DGC) aims to provide decorators with helpful insights and ideas to improve their businesses. We recognise that many decorators are so deep in their business that they may not have time to focus on the overall strategy or competition in the industry. It is essential for a successful business to understand its competitive landscape, which is why we offer tips like this on researching competitor activity. By leveraging our collective insights and experiences, we can develop a greater awareness of the competition in our market, allowing us to make informed decisions about pricing, services and strategies.
If you’re looking to stay competitive in your industry, it’s crucial to analyse what your competitors are doing. How much they’re charging, the kind of work they’re offering and which clients they are targeting. The decorating market is flooded with options, making it harder to stand out from the competition. However, sometimes taking a step back, looking at the business in depth and focusing on the direction you want it to go can help you gain clarity for moving forward.
Here, in the video below, we will use a whiteboard exercise for diving deeper into the insights needed to create a tailored strategy. By taking time to sharpen the details, you’ll have clear goals that can help guide your progress. So let’s get started and run through what I think we need to look at! You will better understand our concept here if you watch the video rather than just read the blog.
We suggest businesses operating in a local area start by defining the radius you want to work in. The travel time from place to place should also be considered, as many businesses have clients beyond their immediate vicinity. Don’t forget that sometimes, such as working in London or the city centre; it can take a lot longer to go a few miles than it would if you were out of town.
When examining competitors, it can be helpful to think of a series of overlapping circles – with many businesses providing similar services across all of them. Focusing efforts on one particular circle at a time can help differentiate a business from its competition. For instance, an interior decorator based in one area will have logical limitations on how far they can travel, meaning competitors may dominate certain areas that are further away. Identifying precisely who those competitors are and where they are located is key to any successful business strategy.
Suppose you can focus on marketing and start finding the customers you want closer to home because you don’t need as many. In that case, that’s ideal, but we’ll discuss that later. How many customers do you actually need? It’s probably a lot less than you think. You may need more inquiries, but you need fewer customers than you think.
What I want to do here is this; the first thing we need to think about is our distance. We must limit our distance. If we currently travel 45 minutes to the job, that makes an hour and a half round trip every day. Don’t forget, if you could reduce that to 30 minutes by working more locally, you would save 30 minutes each day! This could give you 30 minutes to work longer, meaning you could get the job done quicker and make more profit. It depends on you and what’s a priority. Or, you can spend 30 minutes every day – two and a half hours a week on your business.
Imagine what you could achieve with that time.
Imagine what you could do in two and a half hours if you could shorten your travel time! Imagine how much money you will save on fuel alone!
So, back to my point; if you could focus on marketing, something that is a new concept to many, especially specifically targeted marketing that targets a specific demographic group, in a specific area, with specific interests related to what you offer as a business then image where your business could be in 12 months!
Also, by reducing your distance, you are reducing your competition and therefore removing some of your competitors from the equation.
You need to focus on something specific to stand out from your competitors. What can you offer that they don’t? s there something specific you do within the residential side, a particular sector, or a particular size/demographic that is missing in your area? We focused on kitchen renovations because we knew there was a market for it. It doesn’t have to be one specific thing, it can be a few, but you need to stand out.
The other thing that you also want to focus on, which is something that’s coming, is that we’re going to be heavily focused on price. If we can get you to look at your pricing, I am not asking you to be cheaper by any stretch; if anything, we want to be more expensive. But we’re going to try to make sure you get your pricing on point! If you know what your numbers are, then you know what negotiation room you have. If you don’t know your numbers, you could be doing the job for the love of it and losing money!
Let’s take a quick look.
You always want to be aware of your numbers so that you can make the best choices for your business. In this case, if you had assumed that you needed £2000 for a job but then realised that you could have done it for £1750, that extra £250 could have gone towards outperforming or outmanoeuvring your competitors. It’s not about being cheaper; it’s about knowing your numbers and being strategic.
If you want to get ahead of your competition, you need to learn how to negotiate with your clients and customers. We’ll show you how to get more out of your negotiations so you can get to your next customer sooner. We use clever marketing techniques to ensure our clients do our marketing for us. This allows us to get to the next customer before they even start looking for a competitor. If they say no, we want Ian to do the work, then we know we’ve done an excellent job, and we’ve encouraged the customer to recommend us. There are so many ways to reduce your competitors. You’re probably losing work to them right now because they’re pricing their services lower than yours.
These blogs and videos are little snippets and snapshots of what we will work on moving forward in the Decorators Growth Club. We want you to start doing better jobs for better customers, for better prices, for better outcomes. The feeling at the end of a project of “I loved that job, I loved that client, I want another one”.
No matter what’s happening in the economy, things are constantly changing, and there’s always an opportunity for those who are willing to seize it. So if you’re a decorator, now is the time to get involved, be proactive and start thinking about marketing and using your customers to help you get even more business. Your competitors may be worrying, but don’t let that stop you from outperforming them. Get good at what you do, and you’ll reap the rewards in no time.
I’m not saying I have got all the answers here, We’re making great progress in our business, and we’re constantly improving. There are others who have gone through the Growth Club already, and they’re doing fantastic. We, decorators, have always worked alone, but this is a much better way to do things; we can learn from each other and help each other grow. This is something that’s never been done before in our industry, and I’m excited to be a part of it.
Have a look at the Decorators Growth Club Pro Members and grow your business with other likeminded decorators. If you fancy joining the FREE facebook group then head here
