MBA2585 Q&A Wednesday: What Should I Do If a Competitor Copies My Business?

0:00What do you do when your competitor just straight up copies your business, your features, the words on your website, even your sales videos. It's frustrating. It's infuriating. And you can feel like this is like some sort of personal attack. But here's the truth. If you're doing anything right, this will happen. Today, I'm going to share with you what to do when your competitor copies you, why it's not the end of the world, and how to stay ahead, despite the fact they're just straight up ripping you off.

0:28Welcome back to the$100 MBA show. I'm your host, Omar Zinhome, where we deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business. Today's Q &A Wednesday where we answer a question from one of our listeners, one of our community members. If you've got a question you want to ask, go to 100mba.net slash Q, submit your question there. Today's question is from Tony, and Tony asks, what should I do if a competitor copies my business? Tony, I feel your pain. Over the last 20 years of doing this business thing, this has happened to me over and over and over, especially with my software company that I built for 10 years, Webinar Ninja.

1:06We've been copied more times than I can count. I'm talking about entire feature sets. They're ripping off the actual words and copy from our website, like word for word. Even our sales videos were replicated almost frame by frame. Like they just ripped off the script and just duplicated it. I get it. It's incredibly frustrating, especially right when you notice it, right when you see it and it's pointed out to you. But let me share some practical, effective ways to handle this situation. Step one is understanding the reality of business. What's that reality? Well, it's copying is inevitable. If you're being copied, it means you're doing something right.

1:44Think about it. People don't copy things that are not worth copying. It's a sign that you're leading in the right direction in your market. Though they say that imitation is the highest form of flattery, but in your case with your business, it means that you're basically the market standard. People see you as the leader and they're like, hey, they're doing this right. Let's just copy them. The second thing you need to keep in mind is that copycats can't replicate your execution. They can copy your product or your marketing, but they can't copy your team, your brand, or the experience you deliver to customers.

2:16Execution is everything. And this is what I have found when my competitors copied me. On the surface, they looked similar to us, but as soon as you just kind of interact with them, it all kind of falls flat and doesn't work. For example, we had many competitors when I was building Women on Edge of My Software that were copying our features exactly. One competitor in particular was really just doing everything we were doing. But I didn't panic. When we knew they couldn't replicate the thought process, the user experience, or the customer support that made all this work together, it made me understand that they can try to present themselves as a competitor.

2:55but once customers experience it, they'll be like, no, this is not exactly what I'm looking for. I'm going to go to the source. I'm going to go to the market leader, which was us. And it was just so much easier to convert those customers because they are not needing to be convinced of the software. They just need one that's better. So the bottom line here is that they can copy your style, but they can't copy your substance, your execution, and your complete experience. Another good example of this is that there are hundreds of theme parks around the world, but there's only one Disney, right? Disney World, Disneyland, wherever you are in the world, Paris or Japan or Hong Kong.

3:34People understand that Disney parks are unique. When people try to copy them and when they experience it, they're like, oh, this is cheesy. What is this? All right. Step two is to protect your intellectual property. There are steps to protect your business legally, but I want to tell you that this is not for somebody who's just starting out. If you're starting out and you're not making any money and you have no traction, you have no product market fit, you haven't made your first$10 ,000 in revenue is kind of the mark I see as that starting phase, that zero to$10 ,000. Then these things I'm going to mention to you are really not for you.

4:08Wait until you get to that point where you actually have something on your hands worth protecting. First one is trademarking your brand assets. And you don't really need to trademark every single thing. The main things you need your trademark is your business name, like the brand name you're trading on, logos, maybe even a tagline that you're famous for. Like McDonald's, I'm loving it. That's a tagline. This prevents competitors from using them outright. Now, I have done this with my businesses and it's actually not that expensive. There's a lot of services that do this on a pretty good budget.

4:37I got mine done for under$1 ,000. I'm talking about all of them, the logo, the brand name, even a tagline. So you have to have some profits to reinvest in this. And I understand people don't want to spend$1 ,000. A They're like, hey, I'd rather spend that on marketing or sales or product. Once you have a product that actually works and your customers are in love with your brand and your experience, I would recommend at least trademarking your business name. Your logo can change over time. Your tagline, it's okay. But the business name is important. Again, this is after you are making money, you're making profits, and you have money to reinvest in your business.

5:09The second thing I want to point out that is kind of protected by default is your content. Your website copy, your videos, and other original content are automatically copyrighted under most laws in most Western countries. Now, that leads me to the third point, which is just because it's protected by law doesn't mean there's nothing you have to do. What if somebody copies you? Well, you have to enforce that law. Getting legal involved, which is number three. If the copying is blamed or harms your business or your revenue in any way, I would think it's worth consulting with an intellectual property lawyer or any kind of lawyer that's familiar with this kind of law.

5:45And they can send a cease and desist letter to that business to stop the behavior. Usually that stops the behavior most of the time where they're like, oh, you call me. OK, I'll change that. I'll remove that. I'll do that. And usually in the letter, it says, you know, this is the time frame they have to do that. Again, having a lawyer that can do this for a couple hours of work, it's going to cost you under$1 ,000, might be worth it if it's costing you that much money in sales. So as an action step, you may want to audit your business assets and ensure you are protected in any way you can. That's, again, if you are making revenue and you are actually in the process of growing your business.

6:23You're not just kind of just starting it. Step three, focus on staying ahead. My advice to you is instead of getting sucked in this whole cycle of following your competitors, you need to focus on what you can control. You know, competitors will copy you. Competitors will do nasty things sometimes. And what I found is that the best way to get ahead is to focus. That means constantly innovating. And that's what we did. You know, copycats are always one step behind. By continuously to improve and to innovate in your business, you can make it impossible for them to even get ahead, for them to actually keep up with you even.

6:59And most of the time they just give up. And that's what I found in my experience where you're like, I don't care how much you copy, I'm always going to beat you. The second thing that we did that we really recommend when you're in this situation is double down on customer experience. Your customers don't choose just solely on the product. They choose because the experience you provide. Make your customer support, your onboarding, your customer success, your all of our experience unbeatable, especially before they buy. So when people are asking questions, maybe through a chat bot inside of your website, or they're on a webinar, or they get on a call with you, or they send you an email, all this is super important.

7:37When our competitors copied our sales videos, we didn't waste time trying to take them down. Instead, we launched a new series of educational content that positioned us as the thought leader in webinars. We did live trainings, we did online courses around webinars, and people saw that Oh, we actually know what we're talking about. What a great experience. I'm going to go with the authority. Step four, change the narrative. Here's a mindset shift I want you to adopt. Don't waste time worrying about being copied. Use it to your advantage. Position yourself as the original. There's a reason why Coca-Cola puts original on their cans.

8:13Reminding the audience that you were the innovator. Share your story, your process, and what sets you apart. One of the things I used to do is I used to share on social and have a picture of our website and the competitor's website and say, hey, we must be doing something right if they're copying our sales copy word for word. And people would automatically see, oh, you guys are the original people. You guys are the people that started this all. You're the people that come up with the ideas. You're the trailblazers. Secondly, you get to get one step further and see it as a way to leverage it in your marketing.

8:43You know, like whether it's on your website or on your ads, like social media ads or in your social media. it's an opportunity to highlight your version is better. I say, hey, even though these guys are trying to copy us, this is why we're better. Create the content that shows that your execution solves the problem better than anyone else. Hey guys, check it out. When you contact our support, we get back to in 30 seconds on our chat. Our competitors that claim they have great customer support, I tried it and actually they get back to you in 24 hours. Here's the bottom line. Let the copycats be proof of your influence and use it to amplify your brand.

9:16So Tony, who asked today's question and everybody else who's listening, getting copied is frustrating. I get it, but it's not the end of the world. And don't forget that you have the power to handle it with grace and with class. Number one, accept that copying is a part of the game and take it as a compliment. Number two, protect your intellectual property when you can, when you're making money. Number three, focus on innovation and customer experience to stay ahead. Number four, use the situation to reinforce your position as the original, as the market leader. Remember, the businesses that succeed are the ones that execute better.

9:51They serve their customers better. They innovate faster. Copycats will always trail behind. And they're not going to be around for long. I've seen so many of the competitors that we faced over the years just drop like flies because they just can't keep that up. It's not sustainable. and I actually want to tell them, it's just easier for you to just come up with your own ideas. You'll do better. Thanks for tuning into the$100 MBA show. If you found this episode helpful, the best way to say thank you is to hit that subscribe or follow button. If you're listening on Spotify or Apple or watching on YouTube, it's the best way to support the show and it's the best way for you to continue to learn and grow your business so you can get our next episodes automatically.

10:29I'm Omar Zinhome and I'll see you in the next episode.