Competition Archives - TODAY INDIA

Remaining Relevant – Edging Out Your Competition in the Hotel Industry

Unless they’re historic bed and breakfast inns, most hotels are modern and up-to-date, boasting high speed internet, sound wave alarm clocks and versatile hangers, among other hotel supplies. If you’re like most people who work in hotels and handle the amenities, in some capacity, on a daily basis, after a while you might not notice the details anymore. As with most day-to-day tasks, buying hotel supplies and amenities can become routine especially when you’re tasked with balancing budgetary constraints, style needs and guest preferences. If hotel supplies such as towels, ice buckets and bed spreads become dated, hotels can become dated, too, and get lost amongst the competition.

Hotels that are successful long-term attribute their success, in part, to their ability to remain relevant which means they know themselves and their brand identity. They also know the hotels near them and what makes them stand out. When you think about your hotel, what do people pay for? Is your service exceptional?

Maybe the views are amazing and the hotel supplies and amenities are unique. If luxury and convenience define your business, plush robes and bed linens and complimentary breakfast would be relevant hotel supplies and amenities. To maintain their place among the masses, hotels must keep current with trends to remain competitive and relevant.

Timeliness very likely isn’t a high priority for you or anybody else who works in hotels. However, if hotels want to maintain occupancy rates, attract new business and offer a great overall experience ensuring that everything from the amenities and hotel supplies to the color palettes and furniture are current and inviting is paramount. Have you ever gotten a room in a modern hotel and, upon walking into the room itself, felt like you traveled in time back to the early 1990s or worse, and it’s not a historic hotel? While it might not affect the visit, most people think less of hotels that are dated, especially when the amenities, hotel supplies and conveniences one would expect are either not offered or unavailable during their stay.

Whether you’re working for an eclectic bed and breakfast or a posh spa resort, conveying value to your guests is important. Quality amenities and hotel supplies, amazing views, superb locations and complimentary meals or snacks all convey the “we’re trying to maximize your dollar” message. It’s important, especially when consumers of every stripe are counting their pennies and paying more attention to what they’re getting for their money than ever before. While hotel supplies and amenities are important components of hotels, they aren’t everything. The cleanliness of your hotel, a responsive staff, spacious guest rooms and modern furnishings all play important roles in the overall guest experience.

Being and remaining competitive in the hospitality industry is no small feat. Maintaining your edge by providing quality hotel supplies and amenities helps you as the competition among hotels is stiff almost everywhere. When people feel like their opinion matters, when they see updated fixtures, renovations that modernize hotels and high quality hotel supplies, they know they’ve been heard which typically translates into more business for you. That said, focused on details though you might be, it’s important that those same details remain fresh and relevant to both guest and hotel alike.

How To Stand Out From Your Competition – Say Thank You

Hectic schedules and busy workdays eat away at our time. They eat away at your prospect’s time, too. When you land a meeting or a phone call, the most important thing you can do is say “thank you for your time.” Here are a few tried and true methods for saying “thank you” that will keep you fresh in your prospect’s mind:

1. Send a quick “thank you” email. The secret is in the system. Save the text of your “thank you” email as a draft so you can quickly copy and paste it into a new email composition. This way, you can quickly send out emails to prospects after phone calls or face to face meetings. You want to sound polite and grateful, and you also want to remind your client about why you’re qualified to do the job. Here’s the email I send out after phone meetings:

Hi {{NAME}},

Pleasure talking with you today; thanks for your time. Keep me in mind if you need informative copy written in an engaging, accessible style. Experience working in the marketing and creative departments of a software promotions firm, as well as my years of experience as a copywriter means I understand audience and have a strong command of language. Please view some samples of my work at: http://www.wonderworkingwords.com.

I look forward to working with you down the line. Best of continued success.

2. Follow your email with a “thank you” card. Pick a card that’s eye-catching and artistic. A lovely card is more likely to hang around your prospect’s desk space or be displayed on a tack board; learn to think of a card that’s not immediately thrown away as free advertising. Handwritten cards are best, as are hand addressed and stamped envelopes. Details like this tell your prospect you care.

3. Follow your “thank you” card with a phone call. Remember, anytime you send your prospects something in the mail, you have a ready made excuse to make yet one more touch and keep you and your product or services fresh in their minds. Did they receive what you sent them? Do they have any questions you can answer? You communicate your availability while creating a positive experience for them to associate with you.

Employing these few tips, you’ll be leaps ahead of your competition…and that much closer to making the sale.

Get a Leg Up on the Competition the Chic Way

Chic Entrepreneurs know that it takes more than good looks to make it in the business world today. It takes intelligence, diligence and creativity to get a business up and running in high heels. The choices you make about how you spend your free time will have a critical effect on determining your success and ultimate happiness in life. Chic success is created by those who spend their quality time looking, listening and learning and then intelligently sharing their knowledge with the world using their own words. Here are five ways the Chic Entrepreneur stays ahead of the competition:

1. She turns off the TV. Do you feel like you don’t have enough hours during the day to accomplish all that you want? Take a look at how much TV you watch. Television can become a drain on your time, not to mention a drain on your brain. If you can’t live without your favorite show, give yourself that treat, then promptly turn off the TV or leave the den once it is over. Do yourself a favor and keep this guilty pleasure under wraps; no one sounds intelligent rehashing a night of reality TV. There is nothing chic about vegging on the couch all night, with the remote in one hand and a bag of chips in the other. Every moment spent watching fake people lead make-believe lives inside an electronic box, is a missed moment in your own life. Chic Entrepreneurs make their own reality, instead of settling for the TV version. Remember that you are in control of the TV, not the other way around.

2. She reads a book a week. Chic Entrepreneurs read voraciously and I’m not talking about People magazine or Perez Hilton’s blog. Chic Entrepreneurs read in all genres and they keep a good book or a Business Week in their bag at all times. Slowly replace those trashy romance novels with educational and inspirational books. For the ultimate in multi-tasking, look for books that combine entertaining stories with business lessons. A Chic Entrepreneur finds a way to have fun while gaining knowledge that empowers her to achieve her goals.

3. She puts on chic sunglasses and becomes a spy. Listen to the marketplace: your customers, competitors, business leaders in and outside your industry, the media, and your employees. Business ideas and best practices are all around us, all they need is your unique spin on them. Great new ideas come from combining other previous ideas, so mix and match elements that you see working to create your own epiphany. Sprinkle your brilliance on other’s ideas and make them your own. If you tune your mind into the ideas swirling around your universe you are bound to snag a great business idea and Chic Entrepreneurs do this regularly.

4. She writes it down! Chic Entrepreneurs know that the pen is mightier than the sword. Whether you write for fun, write to keep track of your ideas or write for the betterment of your business, getting in the habit of writing, is good for every business owner. Keep a small notebook and a pen with you at all times in case a good idea comes your way. Then, you can jot it down and not have to think to yourself, “What was that thing I wanted to remember?” When it’s important, don’t leave your memory to chance; amateurs remember, professionals write it down.

5. She makes powerful statements. Now that you have all these smart things to say, make sure you say them chicly. Being well-spoken and well-written is an important part of being chic. Success is a combination of walking the walk and talking the talk. If communication is not your strong suit, consider taking a class on business writing or a grammar refresher or hiring a PR firm to handle this function for you. We’ve all met people we instantly knew were successful as soon as they opened their mouth, and we’ve also met people who give the opposite verbal impression. The Chic Entrepreneur knows it’s the quality of the message that’s important not the number of words used, so choose wisely. Those who speak just to hear the sound of their own voice or those who seem unable to turn off their verbal faucet will soon irritate those with better self-control. Being able to comment succinctly or explain a complex idea or opinion in simple terms makes a memorable impression of class and intelligence.

Tips and Strategies for a Small Business Entrepreneur to Beat the Competition

Many new Small Businesses fail during the early years and one of the reasons attributed for the failure is their inability to beat the competition.

To be successful in your business and to be acknowledged as a successful small business entrepreneur, you have to adopt certain strategies that will enable you to outsmart your competitors and beat them.

1. Go Shopping Yourself:

If you are a manufacturer of certain products, you should go shopping yourself at least once a fortnight. By doing this you will be able to see how and where these products are being displayed, the price at which your competitors are selling their products and the type of packaging used. In fact purchasing of your competitors products on regular basis, testing them and comparing them with your products will be a very useful and productive exercise.

2. Become a member of a Professional Association:

As an entrepreneur it is very important that you become a member of a professional association related to your business or industry. Never, ever think that you can operate in a vacuum and succeed. By regularly attending their meetings, you will get the opportunity of meeting like minded people and your competitors too. Opportunities for gathering vital information and secrets abound in such meetings. Be watchful, grab them and implement them in your small business.

3. Gather Information about Your Competition:

You must have a plan whereby either you or one of your employees should order your competitors’ broachers, catalogues and price lists. This will give you very vital and useful information as to how these products are priced, advertised and promoted. Keeping this constant tab on your competitors will enable you to discover the reasons why some are more successful than you. This ongoing study will help you make very calculated changes in your price structure, marketing and advertising strategies.

4. Attend Trade Shows and Seminars:

Trade shows are places where you as a small business entrepreneur can make useful contacts with other entrepreneurs in your own field of activity and other allied fields as well. Viewing new developments, technologies and marketing methods will inspire and motivate you to develop your own business in those lines.

Attending seminars can be very useful, educative and a place to make useful contacts. These trade shows and seminars can open up new windows of opportunities for you.

5. Read Trade Magazines and Newsletters:

Subscribe to your industry or business trade magazine or newsletter. You will come across many things that you are not aware of, in manufacturing, advertising and marketing. These tips and tricks will help you fine tune some of your present strategies.

6. Address Meetings and Focus Groups:

Never miss an opportunity to address meetings related to your industry or business. It will also be wise to organize Focus Groups where you can obtain the views of the members regarding your products. The feedback thus obtained will help you make changes in your products and the marketability of your products.

7. Distribute Free Gifts, Vouchers and Coupons:

The whole world loves free gifts. Even millionaires love anything given free. You should take full advantage of this and promote your small business by offering free gifts. Whenever there are community gatherings, focus group meetings and other functions, try and distribute free gifts, discounted coupons and vouchers. You should ensure that you have your website URL, address and phone numbers embedded in all your items.

8. Have a Professional looking Website.

A well designed professional looking website is absolutely essential. By providing all the information about your business, products and services, it will add credibility to your small business.

Conclusion:

To succeed as a Small Business Entrepreneur is your ultimate goal and failure is not an option. Keep a watchful eye on your competition and implement these tips and strategies. It will not be long before your competitors disappear from the radar screen.