Questions

You've launched your product. Then, a week later, the rip-offs and clones begin to appear. What's the best way to deal with them? How do you ensure they don't overtake you?

That's a very good question, and is something I had to deal with on a monthly basis when I created Rent a Coder/vWorker.

There's two ways to deal with it. The first is that if your product involves some sort of unique and patentable intellectual property, then you simply pay the money and patent it. This protects you from someone doing the exact same thing, and can also be a key asset if a company is considering purchasing yours.

Unfortunately, most of the time the above is not the case (and it wasn't the case for me either). It's extremely difficult these days to run across a business idea that can be patented. If your product is not patentable, then you have only one other choice. You are in industry where there will be a lot of copying between competitors. The only way to stay ahead is to continue to create new features that your competitors have not thought of yet, and always stay one or two steps out of them.

But it's not enough just to be better, you have to make sure everyone understands why you're better.Make sure you educate your audience on the differences between you and your competitors with a chart of features that shows why your product is far superior to the others. If you notice the chart is looking less compelling over time, that means you need to work more on your product. It is a lot of hard work, but it's the type of work that will make your product better and better, and more and more useful for your customers.

I don't know what your particular product is, but if you'd like some specific advice on how to do this for your product, then just give me a Clarity call.


Answered 9 years ago

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