Remember in junior high school when you wanted to be like all the other kids, especially the popular ones. You may have done everything you could to be just like them because being different meant potentially being ostracized.
Fast forward to adulthood. If you want to stand out as a small business owner you need to RUN as fast as you can from your junior high fears of being different, leave them in the conformity dust or if that doesn’t work turn around and yell, “Get out of my life junior high memories of feeling different!” Flaunt whatever is most unique about you, your personality and/or your business because trying to be like everyone else can hurt your business.
Why?
Because potential clients are not buying your service or product, they are buying your difference.
The next time you visit a potential vendor’s web site, drop in on a networking event or read a newsletter you subscribe to try to become tuned into differences. Are they obvious or not so obvious? Is your own difference obvious or not so obvious?
Think about how you make your own business decisions. Do you base your decisions to buy on price or speed or on something less quantifiable like personality? And when you recommend someone you’ve worked with to someone else, how do you describe that person?
If you start to examine your own behavior, it will help you examine the behavior of potential clients.
Sameness just doesn’t cut it in the small business world!