I don’t know if you’ve seen those books entitled, “Where’s Waldo?”  Basically you have to find waldo in a sea of look-alikes.  You search each page (sometimes for a long, long time) until you find him.  Of course the rest of the characters are designed to disguise Waldo and distract your attention from him.  Once you see him, he’s not hidden or anything, he’s right out there in plain sight — just lost amidst the crowd.  But until you find him, you wonder if he’s really even on the page.

That’s kind of the way our businesses our, in many cases.  On the one hand, they’re right out there in plain sight.  On the other, they’re lost in a sea of competing products and services.  The job we have as business owners is to differentiate ourselves from everyone else to the point that when someone looks — really looks — they see us clearly and distinctly, set apart from the crowd.  That’s marketing.

What have you done to differentiate yourself (and your business) from every competitor out there?  Why would I hire you over all the other candidates?  Why would I go to your business instead of all the others out there?  If you can’t answer these questions, it’s certain your customers can’t either.  Even if you can answer these questions without hesitation, do your customers see things the same way?  Are you sure?  How can you be so certain?

If things are slow, if business is off, it’s likely you haven’t differentiated yourself.  We can all do better in this area.  Ask three customers today why they do business with you.  See if their answers are the ones you would predict.  The last game you want people playing when it comes to your business is where’s waldo?