“I can’t put my best work on my website – I don’t want my competition finding out what I’m doing and copy me.”

“I don’t want to go into that niche of photography – there’s too much competition and I could never make any money at it.”

While it is fair to say that your competition can make things a bit more difficult for you, competition itself isn’t the real challenge. The challenge comes from trying to distinguish yourself from your competition, and offering something that no one else can. Competition in itself is a good thing. And if you learn how to view your competition in a slightly different way, you’ll see how you can use your competition to grow your business.

1. Lots of competition means there is more opportunity.

When you decide to open up your photography business, if you can look around your community and find other photographers to model, that’s a good thing. Don’t look for the photographers struggling to survive; instead look for good role models that are making a healthy living at it. If there are 25 wedding photographers in your community all making a full time living at it, that means there is enough business to go around.

2. More competition means more recognition.

Imagine if you came up with an entirely new concept – something no one had ever heard of before. It may seem like a great idea to move forward with it. But in reality, your potential customers will have to be educated on it before they know they need your products/services. If a customer already knows the idea exists, they simply have to go out and find the business that meets their desires and demands. If you have a slight twist to an old niche, you’ll stand out from the crowd. [Read more…]