As you take the necessary steps to launch or scale your startup you will need to think about how to distinguish your offering within a crowded commercial landscape. Your distinguishable offering is your ‘competitive advantage’, and it is vital to the success of your startup. The identification of a startup’s competitive advantage assists founders in allocating resources, identifying market positioning and fostering growth.
What is Competitive Advantage?
Your startup’s competitive advantage is the quality or service which positions your startup as desirable against the competition. By identifying your startup’s competitive advantage, you are essentially defining your startup’s uniqueness, whether that is a highly skilled team or access to new technology.
Leveraging Your Startup’s Competitive Advantage
Once you have identified your startup’s unique point of difference you will be able to leverage it in order to optimise your startup’s growth. Here are some ways you can leverage your startup’s competitive advantage:
1. Be Consistent
Putting your competitive advantage into day-to-day practice is key to leveraging your competitive advantage. For example, if your competitive advantage is your skilled team, how are you supporting them? It is simple to acknowledge your competitive advantage, but far more complicated to align your values with every proponent of the business.
2. Communication
Communicating what your startup does best is essential to the growth of your startup. Effective marketing, public relations (PR), social media or advertising campaigns can put your startup’s offering on the map. Your startup’s communication efforts should explicitly communicate one or two of your unique offerings rather than an array of benefits so as not to overwhelm your target audience. Adopting this technique ensures that your startup is distinct in the minds of your clients.
3. Legal Protection
Your startup’s competitive advantage, from a unique formula to distinctive brand recognition, is an essential asset and should be protected accordingly. At Allied Legal we believe that the best way to protect your startup’s offering is to formalise and legally protect it. You can do this by patenting, trademarking or copyrighting designs, asking your employees to sign confidentiality agreements, and legally protecting your intellectual property. By safeguarding your competitive advantage, your startup’s unique offering will stay exclusive.
Need Help? Contact Us
At Allied Legal we believe it is essential to protect your competitive advantage as it is a key component of your startup. We can protect your startup’s competitive advantage by formalising key agreements, patenting your technology and protecting your intellectual property. If you want to learn more about how we can help, give us a call on 03 8691 3111 or send us an email at hello@alliedlegal.com.au.
You might also like our article Customer Success: Fuel For Your Startup.
