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Archive for the 'business' Category

Hyper-Competition & Niche Opportunities

Monday, August 23rd, 2010

Here’s the rub. There is no way to sidestep the reality that the technologically enabled globalised business landscape is hyper-competitive. If you sell hats then there are a hundred thousand hat makers doing it better than you or cheaper than you or faster than you. The same goes for web design, photography… whatever.

Hyper-Competition is the Norm

The first thing to accept in a hyper-competitive market is that you can’t ignore the competition – if you don’t want to compete with the Bulgarian web designer then at least accept he’s already competing with you. He wants your customers. Or she, it doesn’t matter.

The second thing to accept in that environment is that hyper-competition is the new state of play everywhere. Everywhere. You no longer operate in a local area, even if your clients come from a local pool… their options are the rest of the world, if they so choose.

Hyper-Competition leads to Three Options

Option A is to crawl up into a ball, don’t compete and die an unnatural death as a business. Sorry but that’s not advisable – but it’s your choice.

Option B is to create a product in a part of the hyper-competitive market where everybody else is grubbing for their rent. The beauty of that is (a) you know that the product has an existing market and (b) you know that people are cashed up and paying. The down side, of course, is that everybody’s slice of the pie is reducing as more competitors flock like seagulls to the guy with the big bag of hot chips.

Option B also means that businesses are innovating in that space like crazy to out-do each other and so if you get to the top of the pack then don’t expect that good looks alone will keep you there. Innovation takes time, effort and money. Option B also probably means ordinary returns on investment over the long-term.

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About the Author

Steven Clark Steven Clark - the stand up guy on this site

My name is Steven Clark (aka nortypig) and my passions are business, web development, photography and writing. My current CV [PDF 775KB] is available for download. Currently I'm completing my 2 final units of a post-graduate university degree of MBA (Journalism and Media Studies) at the University of Tasmania.

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My fine art photography is available online at Steven Clark Studio. You may also enjoy my photo blog Walk a Mile in my Shoes.

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Light Science and Magic by Hunter, Biver and Fuqua - cover

The time has come for me to get more involved in upping my technical photography skills if I hope to embark on a Master of Fine Art and Design (Photography) next year. To that end my first book is the highly recommended Light Science & Magic: An Introduction to Photographic Lighting (Third Edition) by Fil Hunter, Steven Biver and Paul Fuqua. What really differentiates this book is the comprehensive set of exercises and the detailed explanation of the underlying science of light in the real world that encompasses the reader's journey.