Hi ,

[New blog post about marketing technology here.]

The other day I did a one-time consultation with a woman who wanted to start a new business. She was very concerned that there are thousands of other businesses that offer what she wants to offer. Her fear of competition had kept her from "doing anything" about her business idea for at least 5 years.

Competition is not a scary thing. Sometimes it doesn't even matter at all. It's impacted by many things, including

• Market size
• How large you want your business to be
• How unique your spin is on what you do.

Here's an example. Once I was in a workshop with other business owners and a woman there had a very unusual offer. Her offer was to live with someone 24/7 and be with that person whenever she needed to talk. Sort of like a live-in therapist. Her offer price was $1 million annually. And she only had to find one single person to be successful each year. She did that, successfully, for 5 years in a row, saved her money, and doesn't work anymore.

That's pretty wild, but it gives you an idea about how unique you can frame who you are and what you do, and sometimes that knocks out the competition completely.

One thing I see woman business owners get stuck on a lot is not figuring out how big they want their business to be. They get all worried over competition but when we break it down they want a freedom based lifestyle. They really don't want 200 customers. They want maybe 10. Yet they were thinking they had to mount a full scale attack like a much larger business would do.

Here are some questions to ask yourself.

• How many hours or days in a week do I really want to work?
• How much income do I want every month?
• How unique is my product or service?
• What value do I provide to my customers?
• What's the most effective way to find the X number of customers I need to meet my income goal?

These questions simplify and take the fear out of competition. Think more about what you are doing than about what other business owners are doing. That's a much stronger CEO mindset.

If you want to spend an hour talking about your unique value and how to package that you can work with me in a One and Done Hour. Use coupon code FEB5ONLY to take $100 off today, February 5th. You must book and use your One and Done Hour between February 8-26, 2021.

To your sweet success,

Sue Painter