These are the five competitive forces:

• Rivalry among existing competitors
• Bargaining power of buyers
• Bargaining power of suppliers
• Threat of new entrants into the market
• Threat of substitute products or services

As a small service business owner, you face many of the same competitive forces as a large global company. But you have an advantage that they don’t have. You can more easily carve out a piece of the pie that you do better or more uniquely than anyone else. When you do that, you don’t really have competition as long as you stay on top of your game.

How can you carve out a piece of the pie so you don’t have to worry about competition? Here are 3 suggestions:

1. Communicate more clearly than anyone else in your field. That means listening as well as talking, asking as well as advising. Be more open and honest than your competitors.
2. Show your clients that you really care by building strong relationships and always giving extra value. The best way to add value in a service business is in the way you connect with your clients.
3. Provide a service that nobody else does. It may be just an extra touch added to your main service, but look for a problem or frustration that nobody else addresses, and provide a solution. You’ll wonder why you didn’t think to do it sooner.

If you want help thinking about how you could do these things faster or easier, sign up for a free 30 minute consultation and we’ll talk about it. Just email me using the Contact form and request a free consultation. I’ll send you details for signing up.

In the meantime, if you want to expand your thinking, watch the video.

1.  Set a “closing time.”

Unless it’s a retail business, you may be tempted to “do one more thing” or “finish one last order” before knocking off for the day. One way to avoid this is to set a “closing time” that you honor virtually without exception. There’s something about a “rule” that makes it easier to follow than something more vague like “as soon as I’m done.” Set a closing time and stick to it.

2.  Don’t answer the phone after closing time.

With a home-based business and cell phones, the phone can ring after hours and unless you’re diligent, you may find yourself thinking that you might as well answer it. But if you worked at an office and left at 5, you wouldn’t hear the phone ring. You’d simply return the call the next morning. So don’t answer your business phone after hours. And if it’s too much of a temptation, turn the phone off. You’re at home. You’re no longer at work.

3. Keep the business contained to the “office area.”

Home-based businesses have a way of taking over the house, or at least spilling over onto the dining room table or into the family room. Create a policy of no business papers or materials outside of the designated business area. If you’re going to work, you’ll have to go into the work area. That will at least make you think about whether you’re going to leave the family and go back to work. With some discipline, you’ll decide to wait until the next day.

4. Create “No business talk” zones.

Keeping the paperwork confined to the office won’t keep you from talking about your business, especially if you’re an entrepreneurial couple. So create some “No business talk” zones where you will not talk about business. At a minimum, these should include the bedroom, the dining area, and the kitchen. Better yet, consider making the whole house (and the car), except for the office area, a “No business talk” zone. You’ll be amazed at how much less stressful life will be, especially for your family!

5. Observe a regular sabbath.

You don’t have to be religious to benefit from a day when you don’t do any work. Pick at least one day when you do not go to the office, you do not work, and instead you spend the day doing things that you enjoy. As radical as this may sound for some business owners, those who do it report that their productivity increases and their enjoyment goes up. Imagine that!

6. Get out of the “office” regularly.

If you have a home business, you definitely need to get out of the office regularly. Take some time during the day for a walk, an outing, or a workout at the gym. If your work involves a lot of computer time, force yourself to move away from the computer and the office a few times a day, even if it is only for 10 minutes. The change of pace will not only be healthier for your body, your brain, and your eyes, but also also for your spirit. Enjoy!

7. Plan your work and set clear goals.

When you set priorities and know what you’re going to do next, you can be more efficient. One of the reasons we spend too much time working is because we try to make up for the feeling that we haven’t accomplished what we intended. So, set goals and hold yourself to them. You’ll get more done and find it easier to walk away.

8. Turn work into a game.

My favorite way to do this is to give myself a time challenge to see how much I can get done in 45 minutes. I work as though it has to be done by that deadline. I tend to work more efficiently, let go of trying to overthink it or make it perfect. I also have fun in the process because I’ve made it a game. Another version of this game is pretending I’m leaving on vacation the next day. I love how much I get done when I play this game. Try it. You’ll like it!

9. Outsource more.

In any business, there’s work that can be outsourced to someone else. You may get someone else to do something that’s tedious and boring. Or you may outsource a task that someone else can do much better or easier than you can (graphic design, for example). With sites like elance.com, rentacoder.com, and guru.com, there’s no excuse for doing everything yourself. In fact, I think I’m going to outsource the compiling of a list of outsourcing sites that I’ll make available to my readers. I’ll keep you posted.

10. Make regular dates to do something fun.

If you and your partner work together in your business, make sure you set up regular “dates” where you’ll do something fun, even if it’s just dinner and a movie. We know that anticipation of a fun event adds significantly to our enjoyment, so make dates that you’ll really look forward to. Then enjoy every minute of anticipation, as well as the date itself. Speaking of dates, I’m going to stop right now and go enjoy dinner with my wife. I’ve been looking forward to it all day!