Growing Your Business Through Being an Outsider
When you hear the word outsider, what are the first thoughts? Loner, quiet one, “that guy”, nuisance. When I hear that word, I think opportunity. When we move into an area, we are always considered the outsider to the entire wedding profession. Most people think we are just another “new” photographer just starting out. I am hoping to show you how this can be a blessing in disguise.
The New Guy
The first advantage to being the outsider is you are new to the area. This may sound contradictory but being new has a huge advantage…you see things from a new perspective. I can’t tell you how many areas we go to where we meet resistance for just bringing up ideas or trying something new. These ideas and drive will promote change in any market you go to. This is especially true in a market where you have a lot of “established” businesses (this is code for businesses who are complacent). The number one threat to any business is complacency. The minute you lose your drive to change or innovate, someone else will do it for you and take your clients (those people are called outsiders).
The Trusted One
Another advantage to being an outsider is that other vendors perceive you can be trusted because you don’t know other vendors. We find countless vendors telling us details about other vendors, situations, or clients because they feel we are new and they can trust us. I can’t tell you how much this information helps us establish our market and figure out which vendors we can work with.
Being the outsider can be very intimidating at first, but you can turn it into one of your greatest attributes. If you find yourself as the outsider, draw on your experience to innovate new ideas for your area and continue to meet with vendors to find out who they are as people.
I hope you have enjoyed this post. Do you want to dive deeper into how to be successful in new markets or are relocating your business and need some help? Come join our course Break into a New Market.
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