The Pole Industry is still relatively young. Many long established business concepts are still only trickling into the Pole Biz. One concept is understanding competition. Many mistakenly believe competition is always bad for their business. The opposite is true.
Competition:
- Raises the standards of an entire industry.
- Forces improvements in quality of products and services.
- Acceptance of those products and services by the general public.
- Increases awareness.
- Decreases costs to consumers and related businesses.
This all applies at the worldwide, national and local levels. If you are the manufacturer of poles or accessories, your competition will drive you to build better quality products and offer a higher level of customer support. While there will be an increase in expenses for Research & Development, it will be offset by the overall market increase. Often manufacturing costs will decrease as a byproduct of the R&D. It should be noted that when quality increases, so do sales by consumer confidence. LCD TV’s, computers, smartphones, all saw increased sales as a direct result of an increase in product quality driven by competition.
When a new pole dance studio opens across town from an existing studio it is a positive. It is a myth that the new studio is simply splitting the customer base of the first studio. It is more likely to increase the overall market for pole dance & fitness.
They will likely (if both are smart) be advertising in different places and have studio facilities with differing demographics. So the new studio should be reaching primarily a new market. There will also be greater local acceptance with pole no longer an isolated market. Just like a pole manufacturer, you may find an increase in overall customers for all the same reasons cited above. There will also be the same drive to increase quality of services & support. In all pole businesses it will be how you respond to the push from competition.
And the not so smart? Will try to do everything head to head and fail. Toyota never tried duplicating a Ford Taurus when it was the best selling car. Toyota beat them with the Camry. Neither Wendy’s or Burger King try to duplicate anything McDonald’s does. That leaves business for all three in the burger business. LA Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness, Curves, Planet Fitness, all operate fitness centers although each has different facilities and targets different audiences. They are not simply trying to split the same pie.
You need to respond to competition in a positive fashion. Improve your products, services & support. NOTE: If you try to react negatively it will hurt your own business! Doing any form of “bad mouthing” of your competition only makes you look bad. With today’s social media you will find that your comments will spread online and make its way back to your own customers possibly souring your relationship with them. It is better to instead say how your product or service is better and not how their’s is worse. If it is not better? Then you need to accept the drive to improve them.
In some cases you might have greater gains by working with your competition. Pole studios especially do not grasp the positives of working with other studios. In one case an established pole dance studio had a schedule mainly of private lessons and advanced level classes. They did not have room to add more beginner classes. The new studio had beginner pole instructors with much less experience. A perfect opportunity for each to leverage the other.
The established studio was to send some beginner students they couldn’t accept to the new studio. While the new studio sent advanced students back. There was also some monetary provision set aside as well. (They just recently started this arrangement and will update in the future with results.) This has thus far increased business for each. This will again drive each to improve their services and facilities increasing their own business value. If the established studio is smart how they handle things and positions itself as the premiere studio, they should be able to command a higher rate for classes and private lessons. Not only than the other studio but more than before the new studio arrived on the scene. From there they should increase their business profits. As the new studios students get too advanced for their instructors they will need to move to the established studio. All because of the competition.
Competition can be a stroke of luck for your pole business.