Comparison Kills Creativity and Differentiation in Business

I recently enrolled in a year-long art program to learn new skills and to create a portfolio of paintings. Some group coaches participate in the community feed and give coaching tips. One I read recently resonated with me and applied to most things, including our businesses.

Anyone who starts or owns a small business is a creator. The headline for this coaching tip was Comparison Kills Creativity. In business, it is easy to compare ourselves to our competitors or colleagues in parallel industries. Social media inundates us with our competitors’ and friends’ updates. Of course, all businesses will only post their accomplishments. I don’t know of any small business that posts about losing a big client or not getting the sale.

They post about growth, awards, and wonderful customers, making it difficult to avoid comparing or contrasting our progress against what everyone else is promoting.??

Your Business is Your Creative Venture

Switching back to art for a minute, the coaching tip in the art forum expresses how comparison stifles creativity. Instead of allowing yourself to experiment and explore new techniques, you may try to make your painting look like everyone else’s.

After all, you like their painting, so why not?

Without a Point of Difference, You?Are Left?with?a Price

In business, instead of forging your own path, making mistakes, fine-tuning, and creating a point of difference, we are pulled to doing what others in the market are doing. But guess what? We may or may not know what isn’t working in their business, and we risk losing any meaningful business differentiation to the market. When we all look the same, then price becomes the focus. We create a race to the lowest profit margins.

Low margins make it more challenging to be successful; however, the greater tragedy is that you have become an imitation, a copy. Passion is ignited when we see our business evolve from our hearts, minds, and efforts. I get that there is nothing new under the sun, and all of our creations are, in part, from somewhere else, but at a minimum, our creation is a new creation derived from the curation of ideas, strategies, and our unique execution.

In art, we may like a certain style of painting, prefer specific mediums, and even admire a favorite artist’s color palette. Yet, when we put brush to canvas, mixing and matching a variety of artists’ pieces and parts to depict the scene in front of us or in our minds’ eye, the new creation is uniquely ours.

Look at breakthroughs in big business:

• Amazon drove online shopping with free shipping.
• Apple created the iPod so we could carry around 100 songs in our pocket.
• Tesla created an electric car.
• Netflix: I am?unsure if they were the first to create streaming video.

Leaders of these companies had passion. They were creators.

Many big businesses are no longer around because they have chosen to continue doing business the way they have always done. Blockbuster immediately pops into my mind.

Even Small Businesses Need a Point of Difference

Just like big business, there are other businesses in your industry. There are competitors after the same target audience. And likely, you are selling a similarly functioning widget. So, how exactly are you different? Where does the creativity come in?

As a creator,?

• What is your why? Why did you want to go into business for yourself, to begin with? Sometimes, our why is the passion that fuels our business development.
• What is your product or service? Is it something you invented or created? Is it a service that you want to offer to the world? Is it refined, high-quality, and expensive for a few? Or did you want to make something affordable for the masses so many could enjoy it?
• How do you want to bring your product or service to the market? I know some businesses that were the first to do online when online wasn’t a thing. Other companies have chosen to work through distributors. And so on. How you bring your products and services to the market can differ from what is traditional in an industry or space.
• What type of customer experience do you want to create? I hate doctor’s appointments in general for obvious reasons. There is one provider in our city that every single time, for the 15-plus years I have gone there, calls me back for my appointment exactly on time every time. I have never had to wait even once. I am in and out with care and efficiency. Most of all, these medical professionals respect entirely my time, not vice versa. It is a unique experience for me.
• What is your mission? This is sometimes a combination of the why, the what, and the how.??

How is Crossroads Professional Coaching Different?

Crossroads Professional Coaching helps businesses with various business advice and support services. But the combination of my why, what, and how was my desire to a.) be an encourager, b.) use business experience and knowledge to help clients grow and achieve their business goals, and c.) help them stay aligned with God’s vision for their business and His path to get there. Our mission is summarized as Helping Christians in business grow a successful business on the foundation of their Christian values.

If I watch others who provide some or all of our services, I?don’t know any?who combine the three in this way.??Yes, I know many get into coaching to be encouraging. There are a ton of consultants who help with business growth, and there are a few in the Christian business space. We work primarily one-on-one or with a business owner’s team. There are no webinars or seminars. We focus on providing outsourced services specifically to our business coaching clients.

If I compare our marketing services to the?local largest?advertising agency, I may wonder why they have more significant accounts or are winning Addie Awards. If we tried to emulate them, that could distract me and get our business off track. We want to help clients achieve their goals rather than win awards for us. We want to help small businesses grow, not work with big institutional accounts.

Success is Subjective

Success isn’t based on what is promoted on social media or in the local news—that is just public relations. Success is subjective. The world may only measure success in dollars of revenue and profit or by celebrity fame. I believe business success is achieving your specific goals.

As you embark on your journey as a business owner, remember why you got into business for yourself. What is your passion? Why this business? What defines success to you?

Having worked with hundreds of businesses that may all have bragging rights to the public, they also have their pains, struggles, and even failures. We all do.

I encourage you to create your business from your heart and mind. Your success will follow.