thinking/critical

All business owners must differentiate or compete on price, but the stakes are much higher for designer businesses. Differentiation on design is the primary argument for maintaining higher prices, and failure to do so undermines the entire business premise. Do you know which questions to ask when establishing your pricing strategy?

When a company fails to establish compelling reasons to buy its products, it is reduced to competing on price. This is market reactivity as a form of strategy, and it’s an excellent formula for going out of business. Don’t set your business up to fail. Follow sound strategic principles to differentiate your business and remove yourself from the price game.

The biggest danger to a business owner is lack of originality – generally demonstrated by virtue of getting trapped in his or her industry’s trends. Industry trend following simply turns your business into a commodity business. Avoid the trap, and maintain your margins.

Sure the economy is difficult. But you’re going to go to work anyway, right? So take a page from the independent retailers (booksellers, music stores, jewelry stores, video stores) who have thrived in the face of significant big-box retail competition. If you start viewing the difficult economy as if it were a difficult competitor, perhaps you can convert that helpless feeling of anxiety to a bout of righteous activity instead.