Shortly after I first started my business, I would frequently check the competition to see what they were doing. In my mind, I only had 3 competitors – this was before the big boom of the freelance  community, due in part to tools like WordPress enabling tech-savvy people to create template-based websites with little to no programming knowledge. I would keep tabs on them to see what ways they were copying me, taking stabs at my business through thinly veiled wordplay, and so on.

Over the years, the competition grew. Copycat businesses were popping up every day, some copying my company service for service and frequently “stealing” my ideas before the virtual ink had a chance to dry.

It was discouraging.

I later concluded that this is just an inevitable part of business, and eventually, they weren’t even copying my ideas – they were copying the copier. Some of the similar companies across the nation were likely founded on independent ideas, and felt similarly to the boom in just-like-you business models that were sprouting up everywhere.

The truth is: the competition doesn’t even matter. Here’s why.

1. Imitation is not innovation

There’s really no point in looking around at what your competitors are doing. It’s easy to get fixated on the notion that this is something you should do, but you really shouldn’t.

While you’re looking over at your competitor, another might pass you. You might trip and fall. You might even lose hope and give up all together. Looking at competition with any kind of emotion attached is a recipe for disaster, and is to be avoided at all costs.

Instead of worrying about what the competition is doing, focus on innovation and improving your own company. It will pay off in the end, and you can enjoy the fact that the improvements were made because of your actions and creativity.

2. Competition doesn’t really matter

It’s easy to polarize issues into black or white. Win or lose, first or last. The truth is, you’ll probably never be the best in the world – and even if you are, that’s a pretty big target you paint on your back.

Instead, focus on being one of the best. Even the top companies around the globe know that being first all of the time is impossible. Someone will eventually take your number one slot, and what really matters is staying ahead of the competition by creating what your customers want before they want it.

3. Copycats always lose

Copycat businesses are, as mentioned earlier, an inevitable part of business. Like hurricanes and tornadoes, they are a part of (business) nature. You cannot stop them – all you can do is prepare, and have the resources to withstand the storm and emerge unscathed.

Think about it for a moment – a business copies you, which is copied by another, and the original business copies the copier, and so on and so forth until the business is stretched so thin or is so watered down (read: ineffective) that it’s relatively worthless!

Copycats always lose. They are fads, and will fade into history never to be mentioned again (remember the Macarena?)

4. It steals focus from your business

Imitation is not innovation, and that’s what you need to be one of the best. Instead of worrying about the competition and what they’re up to, focus on reinforcing your own business model and consistently making it better over time.

The process I like to use is Evaluate, Improve, Promote, Repeat. This EIPR method (sorry if it’s not a clever acronym) may not be super catchy or the next buzz word to be tossed around boardrooms across the nation, but it is effective.

Evaluate your position, Improve where you can, Promote the improvements, and Repeat as necessary.

This strategy will have your competition watching you instead of the other way around.

5. Your competition isn’t really real

Now I’m not saying that you should put on your rose-colored glasses and call the world sunshine and rainbows, but the competition isn’t really an indicator of your success – it’s an indication of theirs.

Where you place in the rank of similar businesses is really based on so many factors that it’s pointless to get too caught up on where they are and where you are.  Where you want to be and how to get there is much more important than current standings, because the present is just tomorrows past.

The future is what really matters, and what you do today is means more than what your competition is doing right now. Your competition isn’t really competition at all – it’s just a similar business competing against similar businesses.

“Isn’t that competition?”, you ask. Not really: there are too many variables at play (profit margins, market share, employee morale, customer satisfaction, location, resources, scalability of infrastructure.. the list goes on) to call them “competition”. Each business has its own strengths and weaknesses, and if you get too caught up in this notion of competition, you’ll spend so much time and resources comparing apples to apples that you’ll miss out on the real goal of business.

Business isn’t about beating Company A or being better than Company B, it’s about providing real value to your customers so they never even consider using anyone other than Company Y-O-U.

That’s why I stopped worrying about the “competition”, and you should too.