Instigator Blog - Latest Comments in The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Jennifer — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 23:53:57 -0000

I remember the first time I did a search and found the sites of other writers with the same outlook and philosophy I did. It's definitely a "holy crap!" moment.

That said, I still felt my writing ability held my own against theirs--even if some of my competition had slicker packaging. For me, it's added incentive to get a pro designer.

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Brian McLaughlin — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:23:28 -0000

Ben -
sorry! "environmental scanning" is, for smaller firms at least, the process of monitoring their marketplace for opportunities and threats in the larger view, and to avoid the "gee, I didn't know that" response in a sales call (about a competing product or service) in the smaller view -
Brian

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Ben Yoskovitz — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 09:45:58 -0000

Brian - I'm not sure what environmental scanning is, but if you tell me "holy crap" is an objective, I believe you. Are you referring to composting or something of the sort? Or smaller companies doing a better job of being eco-friendly?

Greg - I feel like that guy under the desk quite a bit too, although it's irritating in some ways to admit it...

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Greg (Mighty Mortgages) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 02:58:56 -0000

Ha ha, I love the pic of the guy under the desk. I have felt like that waaayyy too many times. Good post.

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Andy — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 02:34:13 -0000

Heh brilliant post!

I remember having this exact same Holy Crap reaction about a month ago related to a new fundraising initiative I was starting.

The creepy part is though, the competition was my age (under 25), went to the same Uni as myself, and (amazingly) was the brainchild of a good friend of mine's arch nemesis! I heard about it through another friend.

The timing and circumstances were completely bizarre.

*sorry for multiple post, a less than sign killed off the rest of my original post

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Brian McLaughlin — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 13:18:50 -0000

Ben - occasionally "holy crap" can be an objective, when you're encouraging smaller firms to do environmental scanning, either opportunites ('good' holy crap) or theats ('icky' holy crap) can BOTH contibute to you making better decisions that you would have otherwise ...
Thanks for the post!

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Yu Yu — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 04:03:19 -0000

What I meant was there's so many blogs out there about celebrities and a lot of people I know are coming up with them because they think that they can earn money from those. But the really good ones are not the ones that copy and paste content but the ones that have their own personality. Like anyone can blog about Paris Hilton (in hopes that it brings visitors) but the blogs that will stand out will be the ones that have their own opinion and let their personality shine through -- I think that's the only way to stand out in the millions of blogs out there.

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Ryan Spahn — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:49:56 -0000

I have been working on a totally unique web-service not seen on the Internet for the last seven months.

Today I showed it to a investor over instant message. He liked the idea, but said the market isn't ready for that yet. HuH???? This is an investor who has invested in Napster, Skype and Joost type technologies. Was the market ready for them?

http://www.techavid.com

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Ben Yoskovitz — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:45:17 -0000

Mat - I'm with you. We're agreeing again, scary.

When faced with the sudden shock of competition, just look inward, remember why you're doing what you're doing, why what you're doing is great and keep doing it.

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Mat — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:56:02 -0000

Such moments are definitely scary and disheartening. I think the core of the issue is your belief in your ability to execute the concept better than anyone else, regardless of novelty.

The WOW factor will only carry you so far, the rest is pure execution, and that's the key differentiator.

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Ben Yoskovitz — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:15:08 -0000

Single Grain - Were they looking at the picture or were they hiding under their desks? *grin*

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Single Grain — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:14:16 -0000

LOL the picture of the guy hiding under a desk i hilarious. After Laughed I looked around I say my co workers actually looking at the same picture as me.

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Demetrius Pinder — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 14:41:38 -0000

HAHAHA! I said the same thing (holy crap) when I found out about our competition.

Then, I just said to myself, "my the best company win" and I just focus on my company and what I can do to make things better for my customers.

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

rtwomey — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 21:48:48 -0000

Funny - you hit it exactly on the head (except my panic moments can sometimes last a little longer)! The trick is to presume some detachment and look at the competitor in as objective a manner as possible. Then, build on that knowledge to make your product/service even better.

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Ivan — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 16:16:48 -0000

Hah, I'm so glad I don't have original ideas, so I can't meet with nosy holy crap :)

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Ben Yoskovitz — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 16:12:18 -0000

Nivi - I guess it depends what perspective you're looking at things from. *grin*

Having said that, when looking at competition, you could look at how many customers they have, and who they are. One of the failings of many startups I've seen of late is that they launch with much fanfare but not much in the way of customers. For startups that need critical mass (i.e. lots of customers/traffic/etc.) to be successful, that's a tough road. Yes, many can start small, but in some spaces there is a chicken and egg dilemma.

So customers do count. And they do pay the bills. So it's all about them. But in this context, it's all about you... *smile*

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Ben Yoskovitz — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:07:20 -0000

Yu Yu - I'm not quite sure what you mean -- how are celebrity blogs and humor blogs tied to finding competition and being shocked by it?

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Yu Yu — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 14:16:35 -0000

That was a very useful holy crap. I think it holds true for blogs and individuals too. Like there's so many celebrity blogs or humor blogs that are just over and done with but people keep coming up with them because they want to get their personality out there.

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

Ben Yoskovitz — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 08:49:39 -0000

John - Thanks for stopping by and commenting. If there's no competition at all, you definitely have to ask the question, "Why not?"

In most cases there is competition - and more than you realize - and that initial reaction, especially when you're racing to launch, can be frightening. That's the "holy crap" reaction.

"Someone beat us to it."
"Someone stole our idea."

That's a very typical reaction when you haven't launched your own business. Once you've launched, I think your reaction to competition would be different.

Re: The Holy Crap Reaction to Competition

John — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 08:46:18 -0000

I would have thought that finding competition is a healthy sign that the business is viable - if nobody else is doing something similar (or has plans to do so in future) then *why not*?