Who are you competing with?

Once upon a time, small businesses and entrepeneurs were in large part competing against other “little guys”.  Not so anymore.  In today’s very tight market, those large firms who used to only go after the equally large clients and projects are now going after your clientelle.  And I know this because I used to work in the graphic design and marketing department of one of those big firms here in Michigan.  And those “little” jobs that are your bread and butter… well some of those bigger firms think of them as “low hanging fruit” and when times are tough, they go after them to keep the doors open until the bigger jobs come back.

What does this mean for you?  Well, in addition to just having more competition, it means that small businesses are now competing with companies that in many cases have full time staff dedicated to marketing and graphic design.  And that dedicated marketing staff means that their marketing materials are going to be higher quality than those put out by many small business people.  While many small businesses make due with what they or their administrative assistant can put together, those large companies can have their professional graphic designer and marketing staff put together very slick and impressive collateral and proposals.

How do you combat this when it wouldn’t make sense to hire your own in-house marketing staff?  Think about utilizing a small graphic design or marketing firm to put together templates that you can use for your day to day marketing, and work even closer with this firm to help you out with those larger projects.  This gives you the ability to continue to focus on what you do for your clients while still putting out materials that will help you stand shoulder to shoulder with the big boys.

What do you think?  Have you noticed more competition from firms whom you weren’t competing with before?