Don’t stress – competition is healthy

As wedding and event planners we are in the business of being creative. As such we get allot of our inspiration from others by reading blogs, scanning magazines, watching videos on You Tube and checking out what other people in our industry are up to. So how creative are you being if all the ideas you come up with have been taken from your competition? It’s a good question and one that has been asked many times.

In an age when Social Media has allowed everyone access to other people’s work and ideas, has this medium caused problems or simply been a fantastic way for your business to get noticed? Well I think the answer to both these points is YES. However, a problem is only a problem if you let it become one.

Social Media has helped the small business to develop in a way it has never been able to do before. Previously, you would have needed a huge marketing budget and 70 hours in every working day to generate enough publicity to get you noticed. Now with the help of Twitter, Facebook, You Tube & My Space, to name but a few, you can promote yourself globally to a market that is ready, willing and able to listen.

Don’t be afraid to have a voice. This is a chance for you to show the world that you are good at what you do. No longer do you have to wait for a client to become a client before they realise what a genius you are at what you do. With the invention of blogs and other media of this type you have a chance to show the world what you can do.  Offering valuable tips on your blog and getting your showreel up on You Tube only helps to establish you as an expert in what do.

By definition creativity is a mental and social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts. (taken from Wikipedia) Nowhere does it say that creativity is copying or stealing someone elses work. Guaranteed, most of your really good ideas are formed from the basis of something you have seen somewhere else. However, if you call yourself a creative business owner then one would hope that you have taken a basic idea and then fashioned it into something that is uniquely yours. If you aren’t able to do this then you don’t deserve to call yourself creative. This isn’t a get out clause by the way. An outright copy of someone elses ideas is WRONG! Be original, take ownership and have pride in delivering something you know is uniquely yours.  

They do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, however that doesn’t help you if your competition has stolen your concept or idea and managed to do it in a bigger or better way. So we come back to the question of how do you stop this being a problem? Well does anyone remember the movie ‘Working Girl’ with Melanie Griffiths, Sigourney Weaver and Harrison Ford? Well I do and there was a great moral to that story – be sure your lies will find you out. Sigourney Weaver’s character tried to pass Melanie Griffith’s characters ideas off as her own. When challenged to tell the story of how she came up with those ideas she was unable to because of course, she hadn’t come up with the ideas in the first place.

I know it is hard to ignore the competition, but foccussing all your energies and attention on them is unhealthy, stressful and may ultimately lead to the demise of your company. Be aware of your competition, know who they are and what they’re doing, but don’t fixate on them.

I will leave you with this thought. Be an innovator and watch your dreams come true. Be a follower and watch the dreams of others come true. Kylie Carlson ©