Let’s suppose that you do the research and determine that even though you’re an expert in the field, can get products at a reasonable price, and there is opportunity for residual income, there is significant competition. And not just competition, expert competition. Perhaps better than you in many ways. Can you still win?
I’m reminded of the McDonald brothers and their hamburger stand. Ray Croc comes along, sees the potential and becomes partners with them. He quickly learns the business and buys them out. The McDonald brothers know hamburgers. They are experts. So what do they do, they go to another location and open up a new hamburger joint. Ray, on the other hand, is not satisfied with just the success of the new business he has obtained. He wants it all. So he opens another McDonalds Hamburger joint right across the street from the McDonald brothers’ new store. Who should win here? Clearly the McDonald brothers have far superior expertise to that of Ray Croc. Did that give them the advantage? No. They eventually go out of business and the rest of the story is history. Does someone who is currently the expert mean that they will be able to stay on top? Not necessarily as this real life example has shown. Does your being the current best in your field mean that you will stay there? Nope. There will always be another waiting to knock you off the mountain. The point here, is that anyone can be an expert and successfully compete, even if they aren’t the best. So how do you become as good or better than the expert?
Your objective is to learn everything possible about this person, right down to his or her favorite color of underwear, their stand on Captain Crunch vs. Apple Jacks, and on dogs vs. cats. In the process of your investigation and learning, you’ll likely discover your expert is not as good as you originally believed. For instance, they may be considered an expert just because they were the first one to come up with the idea, product or service. In many cases you’ll discover the expert:
Even if you find just one area in the above list that your ‘expert’ is not doing well in, you have an opportunity for real improvement, and as we used to say as kids, “become king of the mountain.” If the current expert is not doing as good a job in a given area as you can, then this is an opportunity for you to take the lead position. If the current expert does not completely handle a given topic, this provides you with an opportunity to expand into areas that are not currently being handled.
If you can’t find any holes in the expert’s armor, then two possibilities exist.
If you can beat the expert in any way, then go for the jugular.
If you can’t beat them, then consider an alternate product or service.