TetuanValley: When you find your competitors
In the last weeks, some teams at TetuanValley found their competitors (so did we), and these are some of our thoughts on the situation.
A basic part in every project, the step to be taken as soon as a good idea comes into mind, is starting a research on what is already done on the field, if somebody already had your idea, if it was executed and how was it carried out.
It is at that moment when you start looking for similar services to yours and when you ask everyone their opinion (your idea is not a secret, sharing it is not going to generate competitors and lets you see your idea’s nuances). You have then a list of services similar to yours, but not identic: some provide only certain functions, others provide most of them. But The Competitor finally appears: a service so similiar to the one you had in mind that it provides most of the functions you wanted yours to. Two questions should be made then: Do I have something new to offer? Can we coexist?
Something new
«It’s The Execution That Matters, Not The Idea». Your conception about the idea is full of nuances which could lead you to an original solution to the problem. Some functions may appear as basic to your eyes and your competence could have forgotten them. This novel features are the true upthrust, the strongest points on your project.
Coexistence
We can think of different brands and services that offer more or less the same functions, adapted to their users’ needs. On our opionion, since you fulfill the standards, you do not actually keep your users; but if your platform is better than others (or has things that your users like) coexistence with competitors is possible. In fact, interaction with competitors is also possible (like sharing users who need the differential functions). Ideas are not immutable so the ways of complementing each other could be found.
There is also another competence, that which may appear after your project comes true (especially if your idea is a good one and the market is profitable). The questions to be asked then should be similar: What do I have that they do not? Can we coexist?
If the service already exists and works it is because there is a market for it.
An interesting related article:Loogic.com: ¿como debe un emprendedor afrontar la competencia?