Competitors Are Not The Enemy
竞争对手不是敌人
There are lots of things that startups should fear. Competition isn’t one of them. 创业公司应该担心很多事情。竞争不是其中之一。
started an online socks company almost 3 years ago. Since then there have been a number of competitors that have launched in South Africa. I started Nic Harry because I had been wearing a brand called Happy Socks and wanted more. Happy Socks is the gorilla in the sock room with distribution in over 6500 stores globally. They are massive competition for me. 大约三年前创办了一家在线袜子公司。从那时起，已经有许多竞争者在南非成立了自己的公司。我创办Nic Harry是因为我一直穿着一个叫Happy Socks的品牌，并且想要更多。快乐袜子是袜子房里的大猩猩，在全球6500多家商店都有销售。他们对我来说是巨大的竞争。
The reason I bring this all up is that recently I’ve been receiving a lot of tweets, emails and phone calls telling me about my competitors and what they do and how they do it. Many people are shocked that anyone else is copying my idea (colourful socks are not my original idea btw) and doing it so brazenly. Some people point out amazing things that other brands are doing and ask “have you considered something like that?”. While others point to the perceived success that said competitor is having and “doesn’t that worry you?”. 我提到这一切的原因是，最近我收到了很多推特、电子邮件和电话，告诉我我的竞争对手是做什么的，他们是怎么做的。很多人都很震惊，竟然有人这么厚颜无耻地抄袭我的创意(顺便说一句，彩色袜子不是我的原创创意)。有些人指出其他品牌正在做的令人惊奇的事情，并问“你考虑过这样做吗?”而另一些人则指出，他们认为竞争对手取得了成功，“你不担心吗?”
I love that people are interested enough in my brand to take the time to point out my competitors. It means they’re thinking about Nic Harry and that they love what we do. I appreciate that but I’m not listening when you talk about my competitors. 我喜欢人们对我的品牌有足够的兴趣，花时间指出我的竞争对手。这意味着他们在想尼克·哈利，他们喜欢我们做的事情。我很感激，但我没有听你说我的竞争对手。
Let’s talk about competitors. 让我们来谈谈竞争对手。
Competitors are many things but they are certainly not the enemy. Competitors prove that there is a market for you to try and own. I’ve never seen a product that exclusively dominates a market. 竞争对手有很多，但他们肯定不是敌人。竞争对手证明你有一个可以尝试和拥有的市场。我从未见过一种产品能独霸市场。
I own many pairs of sneakers, various denim brands, I’ve owned a few different car brands over the years as well as multiple mobile devices and the truth is that one of those opened me up to an entirely new way of thinking that inevitably led me to their competitors. This experience helps to grow the market size, not shrink it. 我拥有很多双运动鞋，各种牛仔品牌，多年来我拥有过几个不同的汽车品牌，以及多种移动设备，而事实是，其中一款设备让我开启了一种全新的思维方式，不可避免地让我找到了它们的竞争对手。这种经历有助于扩大市场规模，而不是缩小市场规模。
A rising tide lifts all ships, as they say. So from where I stand (yes, on my socks) the more my competitors can open the market up, the more people I have to sell to and win over. 俗话说，水涨船高。因此，从我的立场来看(是的，站在我的立场上)，我的竞争对手越能打开市场，我就必须向更多的人销售，并赢得他们的支持。
If, after all of this, you are wondering who is the enemy, let me tell you… 在经历了这一切之后，如果你想知道谁是敌人，让我告诉你……
Bad Design Is the Enemy
不良的设计是敌人
A fundemental focus in my business is design. The logo design, sock design, product design, the design of our brand aesthetic, the store design which embodies our brand aesthetic, the scent that we’ve developed so that you can smell our brand, our website, emails, tweets, instagrams and everything inbetween. Design is everything. 我业务的一个基本重点是设计。标志设计，袜子设计，产品设计，我们品牌美学的设计，体现我们品牌美学的商店设计，我们开发的气味，让你可以闻到我们的品牌，我们的网站，电子邮件，推特，instagram和其他一切。设计就是一切。
When I look at my competition occassionally, I understand that placing such a great focus on my design and brand from day 1 has been a critical differentiator but it had nothing to do with them. It was a decision we made on our own, to be great at design. 当我偶尔看看我的竞争对手时，我明白从第一天开始就把这么大的注意力放在我的设计和品牌上是一个关键的区别，但这与他们无关。这是我们自己做出的决定，要成为伟大的设计师。
A Weak Product Is The Enemy
弱产品是敌人
You can have the best market position, the most customers, the best design in the world and fantastic distribution but if your product is weak everything falls down. 你可以拥有最好的市场地位，最多的客户，世界上最好的设计和出色的分销，但如果你的产品很弱，一切都会垮掉。
Get your product right and the rest will follow. 做好你的产品，其他的就会随之而来。
Bad Cashflow Is The Enemy
不良现金流是敌人
Well done. You now have great design and a great product. But if your sales aren’t growing and the money isn’t coming in then you’ve got a problem. Sometimes great design and a good product aren’t enough. Yes, it sounds like I’m contradicting myself. This shit is complicated and there’s no quick fix. 做得很好。现在你有了很棒的设计和很棒的产品。但如果你的销售没有增长，收入也没有增加，那你就有问题了。有时候好的设计和好的产品是不够的。是的，听起来我在自相矛盾。这太复杂了，没有捷径可走。
If your sales are going down in the face of a great product and amazing design then you’re missing a trick. Something is wrong and you best get back on the bus and figure it out. 如果你的销售在面对一个伟大的产品和惊人的设计时下降，那么你就错过了一个技巧。有些事情不对劲，你最好回到车上，把它弄清楚。
In one of my previous businesses we built technology that allowed end users to create mobile social networks using their phones. We had a good product and users but we weren’t making any money. No one wanted to pay us for the service. The product eventually had to change and major shifts had to take place. 在我之前的一项业务中，我们开发了允许终端用户使用手机创建移动社交网络的技术。我们有很好的产品和用户，但我们没有赚到钱。没有人愿意为我们的服务付费。产品最终不得不改变，发生了重大的转变。
Sales are imperative. Without money coming in you aren’t really a business. 销售是必要的。没有资金流入，你就不是真正的企业。
Small Margins Are The Enemy
小差距是敌人
You think your competitors are killing it. You feel like they are everywhere. You project that they’re doing huge turnover every month. 你认为你的竞争对手正在扼杀它。你觉得他们无处不在。你估计他们每个月的营业额都很大。
But the truth is that you don’t know their business. You don’t know what their margins are. You don’t know what they’re paying themselves (maybe they’re paying themselves too much and have less cash in the bank than they should). There are so many variables in the equation that it makes my brain hurt. 但事实是你不了解他们的业务。你不知道他们的利润是多少。你不知道他们给自己付了多少钱(也许他们给自己的钱太多了，银行里的现金也少了)。方程中有太多的变量，这让我头疼。
What you do know is your own margins and cost base. Focus on that. Jeff Bezos is famous for trying to squeeze margin out of his suppliers and partners so he can pass the savings onto his customers. For Amazon, margin means customer satisfaction and therefore growth. 你所知道的是你自己的利润和成本基础。把注意力放在这一点上。杰夫•贝佐斯(Jeff Bezos)以试图从供应商和合作伙伴那里榨取利润而闻名，这样他就能把节省下来的利润转移到客户身上。对亚马逊来说，利润率意味着客户满意度，因此也意味着增长。
Don’t focus on what your competitors might be doing, focus on how you can improve your margins. 不要关注你的竞争对手可能在做什么，而是要关注如何提高你的利润率。
Customer Churn Is The Enemy
客户流失是敌人
I love hearing about my competitors and how happy their customers are. I love hearing that because I know they can’t sustain that happiness as well as I can in my business. 我喜欢听到我的竞争对手和他们的客户是多么高兴。我喜欢听他们这么说，因为我知道他们无法像我一样在我的事业中维持这种快乐。
We go out of our way to make sure we get and then keep the best customers for our brand. We don’t lose customers that often and when we do we try our fucking hardest to get them back. 我们竭尽全力确保为我们的品牌赢得并留住最好的客户。我们不会经常失去客户，当我们失去客户的时候，我们会尽我们最大的努力让他们回来。
Losing customers can destroy your business for obvious reasons but sometimes it’s not obvious that you’re losing them so pay attention. 失去客户会毁掉你的生意，原因很明显，但有时你失去客户的原因并不明显，所以要注意。
Distractions Are The Enemy
分心是敌人
It’s easy to jump onto Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook or any other distracting social media platform and search for your competitors. It’s easy to feel like they’re outpacing you in the world when you look at their social stats but it’s important to remember that brands on social media shows the world what they want the world to see. 你很容易跳到Twitter、Instagram、Pinterest、Facebook或任何其他分散注意力的社交媒体平台上，搜索你的竞争对手。当你看他们的社交数据时，你很容易觉得他们在世界上的发展速度超过了你，但重要的是要记住，社交媒体上的品牌向世界展示了他们想让世界看到的东西。
No business is going to post their terrible third quarter sales figures to their Twitter account or Facebook page. They’re going to talk about their TV interviews, their PR and other vanity metrics to make themselves feel better about their shitty performance. 没有一家企业会把糟糕的第三季度销售数据发布到自己的Twitter账户或Facebook页面上。他们会谈论他们的电视采访，他们的公关和其他虚荣心指标，让自己对自己糟糕的表现感觉更好。
Keep your head down, focus on your strategy and build your business. Ignore the distractions, they are the enemy. 低着头，专注于你的战略，建立你的企业。忽视干扰，它们是敌人。
Weak Strategy Is The Enemy
弱战略是敌人
Blindly building things can sometimes lead to magic. But that’s very rare and probably not you or me. 盲目地建造东西有时会带来魔力。但这种情况很少见，可能不是你或我。
On the whole, great businesses are built through hard work, determination and on a premise that a problem exists that needs to be solved. Once the business is alive, a carefully planned (and sometimes reactionary) strategy has to be crafted and executed. 总的来说，伟大的企业是通过努力、决心和一个需要解决的问题的前提下建立起来的。一旦企业生存下来，就必须精心策划(有时是反动的)战略并加以执行。
If you focus on your competitors too much you will lose sight of your brand strategy. If this is happening to you maybe it’s because you don’t fully back your strategy and decisions. Maybe you need to refocus on your own strategy and ignore your competitors for a few months while you get your house in order. 如果你过于关注你的竞争对手，你就会忽视你的品牌战略。如果这发生在你身上，也许是因为你没有完全支持你的策略和决定。也许你需要重新关注你自己的策略，在几个月的时间里忽略你的竞争对手，让你的房子恢复正常。
I’d rather (and do) ignore my competitors as much as possible. I try to educate myself and build the right strategy for my business in the world right now and for where I see it moving to in the next ten years. 我宁愿(而且确实)尽可能地忽视我的竞争对手。我努力教育自己，为我现在在世界上的业务制定正确的战略，并为我在未来十年看到的业务发展方向制定正确的战略。
Bad Execution Is The Enemy
执行力差是敌人
It’s great that you have all the moving parts taped down and ready to go. If you can’t manage the execution perfectly then the chances are, you’re going to struggle whether you have competitors or not. 你把所有的活动部件都粘好了，准备好了，这太棒了。如果你不能很好地管理执行，那么很有可能，无论你是否有竞争对手，你都将挣扎。
If you get distracted and focus too intensely on what everyone else is doing you’re going to screw up what you’re doing and execute badly. 如果你分心，过于专注于别人正在做的事情，你就会把你正在做的事情搞砸，而且执行得很糟糕。
Bad Customer Service Is The Enemy
糟糕的客户服务是敌人
Customer service is easy to do and can become a huge differentiator for your business. 客户服务很容易做，可以成为一个巨大的差异，为您的业务。
Customer service has become so important because there are so many options available to consumers. The Internet and ecommerce have allowed consumers to buy product from, quite literally, anywhere in the world. You are competing on a global scale whether you want to admit it or not. You better up your game and compete with the best, not the competitors closest to you geographically. 客户服务变得如此重要，因为消费者有如此多的选择。互联网和电子商务让消费者可以在世界任何地方购买产品。不管你承认与否，你都是在全球范围内竞争。你要提高自己的水平，与最好的人竞争，而不是地理位置上离你最近的竞争对手。
Ignorance is the enemy
无知是敌人
Don’t be ignorant about your industry, competitors, trends and insights. Take time to read about how the greats think, work and plan. Research industry trends and stay on top of the movers and shakers in the space. 不要对你的行业、竞争对手、趋势和见解一无所知。花点时间阅读一下伟人是如何思考、工作和计划的。研究行业趋势，并在该领域保持领先地位。
I often bump into the founders of other businesses that compete with me directly and engage them in conversation about what we do and what they do. I even make plans to see some of them on a monthly basis. It’s important to remember that keeping in touch is not the same as obsessing over. Keep in touch with your industry, competitors and insights but don’t obsess over them. 我经常遇到其他直接与我竞争的企业的创始人，让他们参与讨论我们做什么，他们做什么。我甚至计划每月去看他们中的一些人。重要的是要记住，保持联系并不等同于痴迷。与你的行业、竞争对手和见解保持联系，但不要过于关注它们。
If you have a decent grasp on some of the things above then I can confidently tell you to forget about your competitors because you’re doing OK. I often take solace in the fact that very few people can get all of this right all of the time. 如果你很好地掌握了以上几点，那么我可以很自信地告诉你，忘记你的竞争对手，因为你做得很好。我经常感到安慰的是，很少有人能一直把所有这些都做对。
The market is always large enough for many players to stake a decent claim and build a valuable business. 市场的规模总是足够大，足以让许多参与者提出合理的要求，建立有价值的业务。
You are not playing a zero sum game. 你不是在玩零和游戏。
https://medium.com/found-it/competitors-are-not-the-enemy-accbaa0fe5b1
