Startups

Your Competition Is Magnificent – Quit Being A Sook

Published

9 years ago

Aug 22, 2017

I’ve got this friend and he’s always crying about the competition. He spends a lot of time sooking about them and coming up with plans to take them down.

I’ve put up with it for a while, but now it’s driving me nuts. I started to think: how can we learn to love our competition in business?

Here are some thoughts I had about your competition:

Thought #1 – You say they’re lying. Good!

My friend says his competition is lying. Many businesses lie and that’s fantastic news for you. When a business lies, they are playing the short game.

“The long game in business is about being so vulnerable, authentic and real that it punches your ideal customer in the face every time they hear about your brand”

Trust in business, leads to incredible progress. All those marketing campaigns your competitor’s use are mostly to make them sound like something they are not. When your business is trustworthy, you don’t need to market as much.

Being honest cuts through the hype and because it’s so rare, your ideal customer runs towards you at 110km, with their arms wide open. Right behind them are all of their network who are begging to hear from a business that is a real – a business that is like you and me.

Don’t hate your dishonest competition: learn to love them from the bottom of your heart. See the love in your competition.

Thought #2 – There’s enough room for everyone

This scarcity mindset that you have to own 100% of the market in your first three years of operations is bulldust. There’s room for you and your competitors. It’s not a sprint; it’s a marathon to reach the unicorn status that is success/world domination.

Feeling like you’re drowning in competition is exactly that. Focusing on your competition 24/7 makes you feel like absolute garbage after a while. It stops you from having a good night sleep full of dreams that contain growth, prosperity, optimism and triumph towards your businesses mission.

I used to be that guy that couldn’t sleep because of competition. Every time someone brought out the same product that was cheaper than mine, I cracked it. I thought that business was so hard because there were so many people that wanted to cut my lunch.

What I forgot is that despite all the competition, people were still buying. Even if we weren’t the cheapest, it didn’t matter. Some people would find us and buy, and others wouldn’t.

The competition can only cut your lunch for so long. If you stick at it and not let the thoughts of their horrible shadows upset you, you’ll be soon making the lunches and cutting theirs.

Thought #3 – It’s ugly

Sooking like a pissed off brown bear with a crown on its head is ugly. You’re showing everyone you work with that you are a sore loser. Winners worry about their own business first.

“Winners know that their business isn’t an immaculate diamond on day one”

Every time my friend complained about his competitors; it made his business seem ugly. I stopped becoming drawn to it as I did at the start. The conversations became more about his competitors than his own business. The focus was lost on competitors which he couldn’t control.

Thought #4 – You can’t win every deal

No business wins 100% of the opportunities that are presented. There’s this lie that you have to be always winning to be successful. There’s this belief that some people have that says their business is unique and therefore it’s only normal that when they pitch, they will always win.

Again, this is total BS. Your business might have some unique strengths, but there’s always competition. Some deals you’ll win and some deals you won’t. You don’t need to win all the time to put food on the table and be successful.

I’m also competitive by nature and I’ve had to settle sometimes for the simple fact that I won’t win all the time. Sometimes losing a deal is only the beginning. The opportunities you lose are where all the lessons are.

“Your lost opportunities are what strengthen your entire value proposition to the market”

Thought #5 – Seeing your competitors suck is inspiring

When a competitor of yours has a major failure, you should be inspired. What I mean is that you should never want your own client base to suffer the same gunshot to the head. Instead of trash talking your competitors for their mistakes, use them as inspiration to not be like them.

Your competitors should form part of the reason why you exist. You should exist not to make the same dumb mistakes they do. You should exist so your customers have a better alternative. Having horrendous companies within the same industry has inspired many businesses like Uber and Airbnb.

Being a business full of inspiring people is easier when everyone else sucks.

Thought #6 – Complaining shows insecurity

By my friend complaining about his competition, what he revealed to me was his insecurity. He was showing me that he lacked the confidence in his own product and so it made sense for him to talk down everyone else’s.

The thing is when you love your product and genuinely believe it’s the best in its field, you forget about everyone else’s. Believing in your product offering comes from the confidence that as a business you believe in yourselves.

If you believe, your ideal customer will believe. Bagging your competition may make you feel better in the short term, but it will never make your business grow.

Thought #7 – You only have so much thinking space

Don’t waste it thinking about your competitors. Use your thinking space to come up with new ideas, to innovate and to WOW your customers. These habits will stop you from living in the scarcity that comes with being obsessed by your competition.

Thinking about your competitors is not going to make them go away. Complaining about them will not improve your product or service. To have a good business, you have to operate from a place of creativity. Being creative is hard work and so you don’t want throw away your thinking space.

Dreaming about your competitors puts you in a spiral of negative thoughts. These thoughts start to overtake the positive ones and pretty soon you can’t be relentlessly optimistic anymore. It’s this optimism that helps you come up with ideas that will change the world.

Much like we compare ourselves to the lives we live through looking at other people’s social media, focusing on your competitor’s forces you to always believe you don’t have enough.

I’m here to say you are good enough. Your business is good enough. Your business can be one of the great’s.

Thought #8 – You can actually do business with your competitors

Here’s the really stupid thing: You can actually do business with your competitors. See, your business can’t fulfill every customer need. Instead of saying “We don’t do that,” use your competitors as referral partners.

I can remember in a business that I was a part of, where we used our competitors over the road to supply us with stock when we ran out and had items on back order. We would do the same thing for them when they ran out of stock. As a result, we always had stock.

“Our competitors over the road taught us lots of things we would have never known if we tried to play the solo game. Business is a team sport”

Final thought

Your competition is not the problem. They’re not the reason why you are losing sales. The real reason you are focused on your competition is because something is wrong with the way you are thinking. Your competitors can force you to sabotage your own success if you don’t stop focusing on them.

Complaining about your competitors never get’s you anywhere. The way to fast-track your success is to get intimate with your competitors and find a way to be uniquely you. Find a way to be bold, authentic, real, sexy and unwavering in your businesses values. Be the honest, cool company that is friends with everybody. That’s how you go from being a sook to being the best in your field.

I want you to use your competition to be world-class. You deserve it.

If you want to increase your productivity and learn some more valuable life hacks, then join my private mailing list on timdenning.net

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Tim Denning

Aussie Blogger with 500M+ views — Writer for CNBC & Business Insider. Inspiring the world through Personal Development and Entrepreneurship You can connect with Tim through his website www.timdenning.com

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Startups

How an LLC Can Help Shield Your Personal Assets

Published

4 days ago

Aug 1, 2026

Addicted2Success Editor

Image Credit: Addicted2success

You are a freelance designer, and your client sued you over a trademark mistake. If you believe that your personal savings are safe, then you may be wrong. You are operating as a default sole proprietor. You and your business are the exact same person. As a result, your personal bank account, your car, and even your home are legally up for grabs.

However, if you start an LLC, you can build a legal shield between your business liabilities and your personal life. These days, you can easily form an LLC online.

How Does This Legal Shield Work

When you start an LLC, your business gets a distinct legal identity. Now, your LLC can open its own bank accounts, sign contracts, take out loans, buy equipment, and be held responsible for its own actions. You are not liable. This boundary between you and your business is called the “corporate veil.”

Visualizing the Separation

Inside the Shield (Business Assets)

Everything your company owns is included in this shield. If your business faces a debt collector or a lawsuit, only your business assets are at risk, such as:

Money in the business bank account
Inventory and raw materials
Office equipment, computers, and company vehicles
Business intellectual property

Outside the Shield (Your Personal Assets)

You don’t have to worry about your personal assets, such as:

Your personal checking and savings accounts
Your home and personal real estate
Your family vehicles
Your retirement funds (401k, IRA) and personal investments

What LLC Protection Covers

Business Debts and Contracts

When your LLC signs a commercial lease, hires a contractor, or buys inventory on credit, these are the obligations of the LLC. Your creditors will come after the assets of the LLC if your business can’t pay.

Lawsuits

If your business is sued over a contract dispute, faulty service, or an operational issue, lawsuits will be filed against your business. All your personal assets are safe.

What LLC Protection Does Not Cover

Personal Torts

The term “tort” refers to an act that causes harm or injury to someone else. The LLC shields you from the mistakes of your employees and general business liabilities. However, it never protects you from your own personal actions. For example, if you personally commit fraud, you can be sued personally.

Personal Guarantees

Vendors often hesitate to lend money to new, growing businesses. Such businesses don’t have long credit histories. Lenders often require you to sign a personal guarantee.

How Owners Accidentally Destroy Their Protection

The legal shield provided by forming an LLC only works when you run your business properly. The corporate veil can be pierced when a court decides that your LLC is not legitimate and strips away your protection in a lawsuit. This usually happens when you make one of the following three mistakes.

Commingling Funds

Many small business owners often mix their personal money with their business money. You are commingling funds when you use your business debit card to buy your personal groceries or you deposit a client’s payment directly into your personal checking account. The legal wall crumbles when you don’t treat your business and personal finances as completely separate.

Missing an Operating Agreement

An operating agreement is the legal document that outlines:

How your LLC is run
Who owns what percentage
How profits are handled

If the creditor’s lawyer finds out that an operating agreement is missing, they may argue that your LLC is just a shell.

Falling Out of “Good Standing”

When you start an LLC, you must file annual reports and pay franchise taxes to keep it active. The state will place your business in “Administrative Dissolution” or bad standing if you miss any of these deadlines. You could lose your limited liability protection if you operate a business under an inactive or dissolved LLC.

Startups

Move Fast without Breaking People: Product Safety Lessons for Ambitious Startups

Published

3 weeks ago

Jul 15, 2026

Addicted2Success Editor

Image Credit: Addicted2success

Fast growth can hide product risks until customers get hurt, especially when safety comes late in development. A software bug can be patched, but a chair, charger, or smart device can cause a burn, fall, cut, or crash.

For founders moving from a prototype to mass sales, the cases handled by Michael Kelly Injury Lawyers in Boston show why launch goals should not push testing, warnings, and foreseeable risks aside. A product claim can involve the design, how a unit was made, user instructions, or several firms in the supply chain.

Why Minimum Viable Should Never Mean Minimally Safe

A minimum viable product should test whether people want an idea, not how much danger they will accept. Teams can delay colors or premium finishes, but not guards, safe heat limits, sound wiring, or clear instructions.

Set Safety Rules Before the Build

The product brief should define who will use the item, where, and what could happen during setup, cleaning, storage, wear, or mistakes. It should also consider what a child, guest, tired worker, or first-time buyer might do.

Shared rules help teams move faster. Designers know which guards must remain. Engineers know which parts cannot fail. Suppliers know what cannot change without review.

Test How People Really Use It

A neat demo is not the real world. Users place products on wet counters, soft rugs, or rough ground. They skip a guide, use the wrong cable, or handle an item in unexpected ways.

Testing should cover misuse without predicting every extreme act. When a risk can be reduced through a guard, lock, stop switch, or clear signal, that design change is often greater than a warning alone.

How Design and Manufacturing Risks Differ

Some risks are built into the design. Others arise when production fails to match the approved plan. Teams need to identify the source before choosing a correction.

Design Problems Start with the Plan

A design problem can affect every unit. A base may tip, a blade may sit too close to a hand, a control may activate too easily, or a battery space may trap heat.

Final inspection cannot repair a flawed plan. The team may need a new shape, shield, limit, material, or control, followed by testing before more units ship.

Manufacturing Problems Break the Plan

A manufacturing problem occurs when a unit or batch does not match the approved design. A fastener may be missing, a weld may be weak, a wire may be damaged, or the wrong component may enter production.

Good records help define the scope. The team should know who made each part, which batch used it, what checks occurred, and where units went. Fast trace work can keep one fault from becoming a wider crisis.

When Customer Feedback Signals More Than Dissatisfaction

Support teams hear about delays, difficult setups, strange sounds, and refunds. Most reports are routine. Yet heat, smoke, sparks, breakage, sharp edges, sudden movement, falls, or failed guards require review.

Treat Complaints as Safety Data

One report may lack key facts, but similar reports can reveal a pattern. Staff should record the model, batch, date, use, photographs, and outcome, then alert someone who can pause sales or order testing.

Teams should not blame unusual use before asking whether another reasonable buyer could make the same choice. A support ticket can be the first sign of a hazard that lab testing missed.

Preserve the Product and the Record

After an injury, the product can help explain what failed. A repair, disposal, or undocumented test can remove evidence. The same applies to old labels, manuals, test files, customer messages, and design notes.

Startups should keep relevant items safely, record who examines them, and preserve earlier versions of instructions and warnings. This history can show what changed and why.

Why Warnings Must Reflect Real Use

A warning works only when a user notices it at the right time. Dense text at the back of a manual may not help during setup. The message should name the hazard, explain the harm, and state what reduces the risk.

Placement matters too. A charging risk belongs near the port. A weight limit belongs where weight is added. Even so, warnings should not replace a safer design when the hazard can reasonably be removed.

How Founders Can Preserve Speed without Cutting Safeguards

A delayed launch, redesign, or recall can feel like defeat. In practice, early action can prevent harm, protect trust, and give the team better facts for the next version. The strongest startups move quickly because their systems protect people.

When a product injures someone, legal guidance can help preserve the item, collect design and manufacturing records, identify responsible companies, and examine whether a defect or unsafe choice caused the harm.