The Key to Business Survival: How to Stand Out from Your Competitors

As of 2018, one fifth of new businesses fail within their first year, while almost 50% close during year five. This means that while many entrepreneurs dream of starting their own business, less than half of them manage to build a successful company.

This means that for many an aspiring business owner, survival is a key and ongoing consideration. While you can take proactive steps to reduce business expenditure in order to boost cashflow and promote growth, in an oversaturated market, you must also think about the competition.

To help your business succeed, here are a few ways to stand out from the crowd.

Focus on Your Customers

Without a doubt, customers are the lifeblood of any business venture. While not the only factor that determines success, customer satisfaction rates can have a large impact. After all, happy customers act as ambassadors for your business, providing good word of mouth, recommendations and remaining loyal to your brand.

As such, by focussing on your customers and aiming to provide the best possible service, it could help your business to stand out from its competitors and promote its survival.

Be Unique and Innovative

In the UK alone, almost 660,000 new businesses were launched in 2016. While half of these will fail, according to statistics, this still means a lot of new potential competitors. So, what can you do to stand out?

By offering something new and innovative, it could help your business to catch the attention of customers. This could be anything from eco initiatives to attract conscious consumers, to using the latest technology, or utilising social shopping.

Specialisms and Expertise

When starting any business, it can be tempting to diversify, offering goods or services that are outside of your initial remit, in order to attract customers and secure those initial sales or partnerships. However, this could be more of a hinderance than a help, resulting in subpar services or growing the business away from your passion.

Instead, gain an advantage by going niche. Of course, you need to make sure your business idea is viable, but once established, try not to venture outside of this. This is because by specialising in one area, your business can provide expertise, helping it to stand out.

In addition to the strategies above to stand out, you could also consider: using social media to build your brand and give your business a personality; impressing clients and boosting relationships with empty leg flights; or including an offer or guarantee to make your new business appear more established and trustworthy.