Entrepreneur Conversations
Every owner has a competitor, and very few talk about how they actually deal with them
Competition is discussed in general terms in classrooms and in particular terms only in private. In this conversation an owner describes how they think about the businesses they compete with, how they respond when a rival cuts prices or a bigger player arrives, and what they decided not to do, and the room asks its own questions.
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Owners react to competitors every week and rarely say what they have learned from it.
Many small businesses spend a good deal of attention on a rival's price, an advertisement or a new branch, and relatively little on why their own customers stay. Hearing an owner describe where they put their attention, and what they have stopped worrying about, can change how others in the room look at their own market.
Textbooks present competition as a set of strategies. In a real business it is an everyday matter: a customer mentions a lower quotation, a staff member moves to a rival, a larger company opens nearby. The conversation is about those ordinary moments and how one owner handled them.
The speaker is not asked to teach a strategy or to claim that their way works for every business. They are asked to be honest about what they did, what they got wrong, and how they decided.
What the speaker is briefed to cover
35 topics across 7 areas. Seven parts of living with competition, from knowing who the competitor is to what it has taught them.
Who They Really Compete WithOften not who they first name.5
- The businesses customers actually compare them with
- Competitors that are not obvious: informal sellers, substitutes, doing it in-house
- Whether the customer's real alternative is another supplier or doing nothing
- How their view of who counts has changed over time
- Whom they have stopped worrying about, and why
Speakers describe competitors in general terms and are asked not to name them.
How They Learn About CompetitorsUsing public information, honestly.5
The speaker is asked to be clear about the line between understanding the market and misusing someone's confidential information, and not to describe anything on the wrong side of it.
- What they look at: published prices, websites, advertisements, reviews
- What they learn from customers who also use others
- How often they check, and whether it takes too much time
- What they decided they should not do to find things out
- What they learned that surprised them
When a Competitor Cuts PriceThe most common pressure.5
- How they found out, and how they felt about it
- Whether they matched, held, or changed what they offered
- Which customers left and which stayed
- What the customers who stayed said about why
- What they would do again, and what they would not
Speakers are asked not to give figures or pricing advice. They describe what they did, not what others should charge.
When a Bigger Player ArrivesA larger company, a new chain, an online seller.5
- What was the first reaction, and was it a good one
- What the bigger business could do that they could not
- What they could do that the bigger business could not
- Whether they changed what they sold, who they sold to or how
- How they spoke to their own team about it
What They Chose Not to CopyAnd what they did copy.5
- Something a competitor did that they decided against, and why
- Something they copied, and whether it worked in their business
- How they tell a useful idea from a fashion
- How they protect what is distinctive about their own work
- A time they copied and regretted it
Where They Lost, and What It TaughtCustomers and staff who went elsewhere.5
- A customer or contract lost to a rival, and what the real reason was
- Whether it was price, service, trust or something they had not noticed
- How they asked, or did not ask, why
- What they changed in their own business afterwards
- Whether the loss was fair
Competing FairlyThe limits an owner sets for themselves.5
- How they talk about competitors to customers
- Why they avoid criticising rivals by name
- Whether they have cooperated with a competitor, and on what
- Where the line sits between competing hard and competing badly
- What they would say to an owner tempted to run a rival down
Speakers do not give legal advice. Anyone unsure whether a practice is allowed is told to ask a professional.
What the speaker prepares
- Two or three real moments of competitive pressure, told in order
- What they did, what they got wrong, and what they would do now
- Their reasoning, without naming competitors or customers
- A willingness to say that another owner in their market might disagree
What the room can ask
- How do you know who your competitor really is?
- What did you do the first time someone undercut you?
- Do you watch rivals closely, or try to ignore them?
- What made customers stay when they had a cheaper option?
- What did you change after losing a customer?
- Is there a competitor you now respect?
How the conversation runs
The speaker describes their approach in a short opening, then a facilitator moves to questions from the room, sent in advance or asked on the day. Before the session the speaker is briefed on not naming or criticising other businesses, not giving pricing or legal advice, and not promoting their own business. If the room includes members who compete with one another, the host decides beforehand whether to keep questions general. The host chooses and invites the speaker and agrees the length with us.
What your students leave with
- A plain account of how one owner thinks about competitors and customers' choices
- An idea of what can be learned from competitors using only public information
- A clearer view of the difference between matching a competitor and responding to a customer
- A sense of what to do, and not to do, when a rival drops their price
- A reminder of the limits that apply to how a business talks about others
- Questions to put to an owner who has lived with a strong competitor
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Hear how one owner lives with competition, and ask how it would work for you.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.