By Duncan Robins | Entrepreneur | June 9, 2020
Entrepreneurs are constantly seeking an edge or an advantage. In fact, most entrepreneurs are wired to look at the world from an opportunist’s perspective and are regularly working an angle, an approach, or a way of attacking a business opportunity that others have missed or have left exposed.
Business consultants get paid big bucks to help organizations identify, create and maintain a ‘competitive advantage’. A competitive advantage is the million-dollar term business textbooks use to describe an entrepreneurial edge. A competitive advantage is defined as the ability of an organization to provide its products or services with either: 1) a higher value to their customers than a competitor but at a similar cost; or, 2) the same value but at a lower cost. A competitive advantage that is sustained should provide a business with the ability to realize consistently higher profits than its competitors.
Higher profits, the goal of many organizations and entrepreneurs (and the successful competitive advantages they build) can be reinvested in things like:
- Growth by acquiring market share, entering new markets, or developing new products
- Brand enhancement programs or product improvements that increase value
- Capital improvements that reduce costs or increase quality
- Compensation that attracts or retains top talent who will perpetuate the advantages
- Legal maneuvers that protect business investments
