Unleash Your Inner Beast: How Small Shops Can Compete with Global Giants

If you own a small business, particularly a shop or other retail business, you may have found yourself faced with the challenge of a bigger, well known competitor moving into your neighborhood. Large retailers and franchises are constantly expanding, so if you haven't felt their presence yet, you may in the near future.

There have been numerous stories and documentaries about small mom and pop type operations closing after a giant such as Wal-mart enters their community. The good news is that your business doesn't have to be one of the ones that suffer. There are plenty of small shops that not only survive when one of these global giants pop up in their backyards, but they flourish.

The key here is to make sure that you fully understand what you're up against. A little proactive research can both help you and set your mind at easy. In particular, there are three things you need to look for and you can use the acronym P.D.A. to remember them.

P stands for Poor Performance. You want to find the areas where your competitors perform poorly and turn them into your strengths. When going up against bigger companies that are able to offer goods for a lower cost than you, this is extremely important. One large retailer started a new campaign where everyone at the store wore a button that says "I can help you in any department." What caused this to happen? Customers complained that when they were finally able to track down an associate, the response they received was "I can't help you, I don't work in this department." Many hardware stores are able to attract business as their employees will help you find what you're looking for and if they can't answer your question, will find you someone that can. Customer service is often what's sacrificed by these big retailers in order to provide low prices.