Your competitors may have the ability to learn more than you to stay a step ahead of you. They may have discovered the next best Facebook app to get them more Likes, Fans, and or interest. Others may have more money than you and can outspend you, they can Out-Tweet you, out post you, out PageRank you, out comment you, out link you….
But no one can Out-You You. Or stated in the first person – “You Cant Out-Me Me”. We all are busy trying to move our businesses forward but do we really know if Twitter will be in ours or others marketing plans 5 years from now. So how or where does one focus. Is your product of service you sell – you?
I am a business broker based in Florida and I help/work with people with the process of buying and selling of businesses. One aspect of the business that makes a business more saleable is the ability for the business to not be dependent upon the owner so that if/when the owner is “replaced” a transition can be seamless. So building a business based on the brand or product being “You” can appear counter-intuitive.
My view based on my experiences is that a customer does business as much with “the way a company does business”, “company philosophies”, “company approach”, as much as they do business with a certain individual. When you think about it we do like the person that we do business with but what is it that we really like? I tend to think it’s the way that person deals with me, and it’s easy to assume that approach starts” at the top”. So I think it’s easy to assume if a customer/client likes the approach or way you do business as an owner and your “brand” is based on how you approach service and ethics and business practices- that this is who the company is and the company is NOT you. If you as the business owner demand honest ethical reliable hard work from yourself and customers see that, they know what your expectations as a business owner are. So if you as a business owner are not truthful, don’t return phone calls, think it’s okay to quote one price and then demand another price after the work is done why would the customer expect anymore from anyone else in your organization.
But the product/brand that you are building on the web content that you post to build your brand may not need to be about you by name- it may be your philosophies, your ways and approaches toward running your business. I have been posting business articles about my experiences, views, and ideas for several years. When someone engages me as a business broker -they are engaging me, and they can understand me through my writings if they choose to do that as a starting point- or they can choose not to engage me as a business broker because of my writings.
Maybe you don’t have the most experience, maybe you are not the smartest, maybe some of what you offer has some shortcomings- most everything does. We all have areas of what we do that can use improvements, but you know you do bring something to the table that is unique to you.
So as the internet changes and strategies change on what new site/app/blog/tweet/hashtag/social bookmark you should be using- you can retain certainty that you and your story will forever remain unique. There is only one You. But as the old song goes from The Who – Who Are You? – You are your feelings, your beliefs, your experiences, ideals, likes, dislikes, the good and the not-so-good of you, and your way of going thru life (and business). Nobody can do you better than you. So when you are creating or building a brand, and the brand is you- no competitor no matter how much money or how smart or how experienced is going to out you- you.