Copy Cat Businesses and how to Cope!

Picture by Anne-Marie Sanderson

I am feeling so annoyed having read one of my friend's posts on Facebook where she tells us that whole chunks of her website copy and ideas have been stolen and placed on someone else's website and business literature.

It's made me think about all the times that Gunter and I have suffered from this same copycat syndrome. It doesn't stop there, they will go after your client base too. We even had a business that tried to steal our name and our logo, let alone the ideas!

The gratifying factor is that they copy the things they see but they will never know the true secret to your success that they try to emulate, that's not to say that copying doesn't undermine your business and take the bread out of your mouths but it does mean their days are numbered, their longevity is questionable and their ethical sensibilities are none, even if they insist their business is ethical.

When someone copies you, the usual response from well-meaning friends is that you can choose to see it as flattering, however if someone steals your car, no one says that is flattering. I prefer to look at it this way, the threat to your business is a challenge for you, a challenge for you to focus on the positive and not the negative. Choose to concentrate on your business and all the good things you do and choose to ignore the other business, do not support it, or help to promote it. The one thing that I have noticed is that people that copy are intrinsically negative thinkers and struggle to realise their own brilliance, when they realise their own brilliance, they won't have to rely on yours and in that lies their weakness, if they take on you and try to compete against you, with your own ideas, not their ideas, then how will they ever win that battle? They can't! Their days are numbered because once you cut them from your circle and you are not so generous with your time and your ideas, they will have to stop copying you.

It is a long, slow and painful lesson for them to learn but copying just does NOT WORK. It is a simple equation a business that copies = FAILURE. That business will not last long because copying someone else means that faced with their own challenges in business, they will not have the resources, the though processes, or the experience of how to deal with challenges, they only know how to copy.

So, to anyone, especially my friend, who feels copied in business and stolen from, please take comfort in this, as long as you focus on your business and your positives, you will succeed no matter what, unfortunately I cannot say the same for business owners that copy. They say jealousy is the sincerest form of flattery, that's what they say about copying too......but copying only cheats everyone involved, the business owners and the public.

The one that copies will almost always be a friend, a friend who asks your advice and then takes your secrets for themselves, they'll treat you kindly and then take from you, rather like a conman....'He always seemed so nice', people say after their life savings have been taken, think about it, he wouldn't have been able to take your life savings if he seemed nasty, would he! Yes, it will feel painful cutting them out at first because you're a human with a conscience.

Having been in this situation many times over the past 7 years in Enfield and in Shepton Mallet. I know the way forward for you is to know your positives and concentrate on them.

It is hard to focus on the positive but keep going and blank that business out from your radar. Focus on your goals and your aims and what you are doing.

Pathway to Success!

The reason I enjoy social media so much and implement it into my business strategy is because it makes it easier and more instant for me to communicate any ideas that I may have, it's also a great resource of inspiring ideas by other people. Ideas, communication and interaction are delightfully combined in the Facebook, Twitter, Google, Instagram and all the rest of them are the perfect platforms for creative women in business, no matter whether at home, on the High Street or out and about. That's why I had the idea to create The Ideas Station, specialised workshops for women. It was only today, that I became truly aware of how I develop an idea of mine from the first thought, or concept, right to the end and completion. For me focus, is the most important first step that I take to bringing my ideas to fruition.

Focus is one of the most truly useful skills we can develop.

I am generally rubbish at that but each time I apply myself and consciously focus on the challenge or action I have to complete, it works. I complete successfully and my vision comes to fruition.

I am sure that you too, like me have lots and lots of thoughts and ideas zooming round your head, about everything. I'm sure you have some amazing ideas and then because of distractions, no action is taken, which means your idea floats away forgotten.

Ideas to me are such valuable celestial inspirations, they seem like bursting stars of gifts from the universe to help me through my life. I am blessed to be extremely rich in ideas, sometimes overwhelmingly rich, which can lead to inaction, as one idea after another causes it's own unique distraction.

When I have an idea, it floats around in my mind, with all the other ideas and constant background chatter that we all have about things we must do, need to do, don't want to do and so on. However, when I choose to focus on one idea, a very strong image is formed in my mind, it is so extremely powerful that it leads me to take each action necessary to implement the idea.

If I could paint what I see when I choose to focus on one idea in particular, there would be a pathway in front of me, with deep perspective, wide at the beginning, where I am standing and my ultimate goal right at the end of the path, where the lines converge. The pathway is edged with light, it could be blue, or yellow, or any other colour, or a kaleidoscope of different hues. The image has straight lines only, like the tunnel that people believe you may see when you die, with the sparkling star of the idea at the end. This visualisation wasn't taught to me, it wasn't a concious decision to use it, initially but as time goes on, that is what I do.
I purposely conjure up that image in my mind and when I say, I'm focussing on this project at the moment, I mean absolutely that. This image protects me from any other distractions, other ideas or obligations are clouded in a misty fog.

It was only today, that I absolutely wholly consciously understood what a powerful technique I have honed over the past nearly 5 years in business. It's a really reliable pathway to success. The biggest tip I can give you for 2014 and beyond is:

Focus on that future point, where your dreams are reality and come to fruition and you will find everything falls into place as you move towards your special light and your ideas transform into reality!

If you want to know more about The Ideas Station inspirational social media workshops for women, then you can read about and book them here.

Reach for your dreams, 2014

Oh! This time last year, I had never heard of a place called Shepton Mallet, which just so happens to be the closest town to Glastonbury Festival! Now, I live there, have a shop there, as well as the one in Enfield, my two children go to school there and I am now a Town Councillor there too. All within around 3 months of moving there. We looked at the shop premises on 7th July, we got the keys on the 30th August and we opened on September 20th, even though we didn't have chairs, tables or a carpet!
At the beginning of the journey, we didn't know how we would achieve moving to Somerset, keeping the Enfield business and opening another shop but as we reached for our goals and knew what we wanted, things seemed to fall into place.
I have learnt, that if you have a vision and know the specific end result of the vision, that you will make it come true, through belief and conviction. You create your own opportunities and shape your own dreams.
I think 2013 was my best year ever, there were plenty of positive changes, plenty of challenges and plenty of choices open to me.
As 2014 unfolds before me, I realise the intrinsic power that each and everyone of us has to change their lives for the better.
For a longtime, I was waiting for someone to see my talent and potential, to give me success. It's only when I used my talents regardless of anyone giving me their permission or not that I was able to change my world, into an even better life than before.
At this point in time, I feel loved and blessed, to be able to contribute to my community in so many positive ways.
What am I trying to say? Well, I wish you a very happy new year and I wish you the power and strength for you to make the changes you need to make, have your vision, feel it, dream it and then live it. It is possible. You can do it.