What about competition?

[Susanna]

Okay, so I know that no one is going to be in a marketplace all alone, at least not for long, if the market is actually viable. However, what happens when you open a magazine to check out their advertising base and see YOUR PRODUCT (future product, anyway) being advertised, exactly as you would have done had you gotten there first? I'm curious to know what you all would recommend. Abandon the project? Produce your product and put a spin on it to increase perceived value? Produce something that works in conjunction with the pre-existing product?

I seem to get myself hung up on the idea that it's "been done before." I'm looking for some fresh new ideas to get me off that hamster wheel!

[nghs22]

Make sure your product is better.

[kamakiri]

I have said this again and again:

NEVER open a pizza shop in a town with no pizza shops.

Always find the town with 10 pizza shops and open there. Why? Because you know they eat pizza!

Same with competition. If I had a dime for every person who PMed me and put in a line asking, "If I tell you my muse, will you steal it?", I would have one hell of a muse already. My reply is always the same, I will steal it if it is good and can be copied. The reality is that I own my own business, and have 2 muses running on the side and don't have the time to go around stealing muses, but there are people who do. If yours gets stolen, then so much the better. You can't get much more of an endorsement than that.

YOU WANT COMPETITION!