When it comes to business, there are many contradicting factors that owners or managers need to handle and balance out. Such is the nature of collaboration and competition. What makes competition good? What makes collaboration a bad thing? Understanding these factors can help business owners to become better in handling businesses and become more successful at the end of the day.
Give credit where credit is due
One of the common business mistakes is for people to consider themselves as the best or the only one with so and so things. Unless you own a patent to such things or a copyright to such work, learn to credit the good work of others learn to improve accordingly without stepping on other toes. It is great to have competition but if you want to start a successful business, it is crucial to also learn while doing it. All businesses start out with something small at some point and people recognize that unique aspect so it became a whole new industry. Assuming that you are the one and only will only lead you to failures at the end of the day.
Do not be overprotective
There is a point when competition can be great but there are times when competitions can be the ultimate common business mistakes. Maybe you used the red soles for your shoes for several years and made a USP out of that signature. The feeling of entitlement is great at certain aspects but ultimately, when big companies stomp other big and smaller companies, it does not look like entitlement anymore but insecurity, owning rights to a word or a surname also can be quite crazy but at the end of the day, sometimes, it had to be dealt with the help of legalities.
Killing the competition?
They say that business is a dog eat dog world. If you cannot take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Some people who hold the controls will make it tougher for others to enter into business. Competition is fierce but that should not lead to deliberate destruction of the good name of a business. If marketing, publicity and media are only there to serve the purpose of getting the dirt out, and then there will be no more space for anything of value.
