Are you dramatically different?

One of the best books you will ever discover to help you grow your business is Doug Hall's 'Jump Start Your Business Brain'. It is an underground classic that is absolutely wonderful advice - it is the book that helped me break free of mediocrity into a life I absolutely love.

One of his biggest points in the book is how you can create a company that is dramatically different than any, and every, competitor in your marketplace.

It doesn't sound easy at first.

Honestly, how many hairdressers or dry cleaners or grocery stores are there in your city that are DRAMATICALLY different?

Few and far between.

In fact, it appears to me that most business owners lose all sense of creativity when they start their business.

The typical process they go through?

Look at what all their competitors do, where they advertise, the types of advertisements they run, the marketing materials they use, the web sites they have... and then they COPY everyone else.

Open your yellow pages for proof... in house painting or carpet cleaning... what is DRAMATICALLY different? Or any section for that matter.

How do you create a dramatic difference in your business? And why should this be considered important?

First, having a dramatic difference gives you a 353% better chance of succeeding (based on thousands of business success stories being ran through a computer model Doug Hall invented). That alone should be enough.

So - tripling your odds of making your business the leader in your industry is all you need to know at this point.

NOTE: 80% of copycats end up failing in their business - so this is very important.

Now, let's get into how to create your own dramatic difference.

1) List out all your biggest benefits you provide right now. If you struggle with this - list out all your features on the left side of the page then the benefit of that on the right.

2) List out your competitors biggest benefits as well - same method.

3) Cross out the benefits on your list that are the same as your competitors.

(great service is not a benefit - everyone says that - unless you do something different with your service offerings)

4) Is there anything left over? If so, you have the start of a dramatic difference. If no, you need to get real serious about this. If your customers can't tell the difference between you and your competitors you are in trouble (and they judge this by this same process - who appears to be different or better?)

5) Can you create a dramatic difference from this so far?

6) Can you answer - ' is the first to offer _________ in this industry' or 'What makes different is that we are the only company out there that offers _________'?

Write out 6 answers to each of those.

Does it SHINE? Or does it suck?

If your statement doesn't leap off the page as a big breakthrough - keep working on it. What difference could make your business 10 TIMES greater than all your competitors?

With so many daily distractions in front of your potential customers - you have to create a MASSIVE difference in their eyes.

What would make them stop everything they are doing to visit your store, read your ad, or answer your letter to them?

Find a way to become dramatically different and you will succeed. Probably the best way to find your own dramatic difference is to look at what your competitors are doing - and do the opposite! And the easiest way to do the opposite is to look at OTHER industries to see what they do differently than you do - THEN find a way to use their difference in your own business.

If you paint houses - copy the service ideas behind cleaning companies, window cleaners, tree trimmers.

If you run an accounting firm - copy the service ideas behind printing companies, marketing consultants, house painters, car detailers.

If you run an information product business - copy the service ideas behind luxury property rentals, artists, paving companies, fence builders, moving companies or pizza delivery companies.

YES - these are completely off-the-wall, unbelievably abstract ideas. That's the point!Find out what works best in other industries (stands out as the most bizarre way to do business in your own industry) - and copy that idea. Try it out for a few months and see how people respond.

You will be pleasantly surprised.