Develop a Competitive Advantage 
by Allen B. Bostrom, CPA

For the greatest success, a home-based business marketing program must communicate an edge over the competition.  It's called a "competitive advantage."

Such a competitive advantage can take the form of a unique product or service, geographical location, or industry specialization.  It can even be the relationship you have with your clients, or the customer service you provide.

Regardless of the product or service you offer, particularly if your business isn't growing as fast as you would like, you must identify and communicate the edge you are or will be offering.  Here's how to do it:

1) Examine the industry you're in or are seeking to enter.  Who are the potential customers?  What and where do they buy?  What educational, ethnic, or family backgrounds do they share? 

2) Identify current providers (your competition) and the services or products they offer.  If your customers will be local, start with the Yellow Pages.  Your library or the Internet have great resources to help you out here, as well.

3) Then identify specific areas where there is a special need that you can satisfy.  Become an expert in that area - read everything you can find on that particular specialty or subject.  Interview people that might be able to give you more background or understanding of how you can satisfy their particular need.

Here's just a few home-based professions followed by some examples to illustrate what I mean by a specialty or competitive advantage:
Freelance writer: Science or profession such as biologists or attorneys
Bookkeeper: Industry such as electrical contractors or gas stations
Medical Billing: Type of practice such as obstetricians or chiropractors
Desktop Publishing: Demographic choice such as females over 40
Bed and Breakfast Inn: Type of Customers such as young couples, no children Backyard Mechanic: Make of Car such as vintage Studebakers or Toyotas

Don't feel limited by this short list -- it could be fifty pages long and still not be complete.  There are hundreds of different businesses you can run from your home.  For each business there are several different types of competitive advantages you might choose.

A student of mine worked in an oriental restaurant for over 20 years, in every capacity, before deciding to hang up his apron for a computer.  Now he makes over $40 per hour performing bookkeeping solely for oriental restaurants.

Not only can specializing provide you greater income but it also makes marketing easier and more efficient.  The marketing approach becomes more targeted, and usually less expensive when you aren't trying to do everything for everyone. 

For instance, if I were a Computer Programmer for stock brokers (notice the competitive advantage?) I certainly wouldn't advertise in Time magazine.  Instead I would target my advertising to less expensive trade journals where stock brokers get their information.  Better yet, I would become a member of any organization where stock brokers hang out.

Creating a competitive advantage, whatever it be, might not make you the next Bill Gates, but it will bring you the success, respect and gratitude of your customers and clients.

Allen is a CPA, instructor for Universal Accounting Training Center and editor for "Accounting and Bookkeeping Tips" a free weekly newsletter for the experienced and "wannabe" freelance bookkeepers and accountants.  Visit http://www.accounting-and-bookkeeping-tips.com for a library of free articles on how to start a bookkeeping service and sign up for the free weekly newsletter packed with ideas that will make your bookkeeping business flourish.