Slacker Is as Slacker Does...
"Whenever I am tempted to slack up and let the business run for a while on its own impetus, I picture my competitor sitting at a desk in his opposition house, thinking and thinking with the most devilish intensity and clearness, and I ask myself what I can do to prepare for his next brilliant move." - H. Gordon Selfridge
How appropriate!
Running an online business is a catch-22. After all, just last week I talked about taking time for yourself, and now I advise you to work harder at reaching your goals. And yes, a primary goal for any online store is to gain business, and that ultimately would be business taken away from a competitor.
I don't shop at Wal-Mart. I don't agree with many of their tactics so I simply cannot condone them. But I am all for healthy competition. If that boils down to competitive pricing, solid products backed up by name and warranties, and prime customer service, well, that's an ideal means of trapping your own customers for life.
I've spent a great deal of time talking about studying competing sites (not copying them, but finding their faults), and it goes a step further to say that we need to think creatively and try to pick up their patterns. You may not call them enemies, but I'd certainly go so far as to tell you to "keep your competitors closer."
That means understanding their target base and tactics on gaining new customers, but more so, on how they keep them. Just as with your own online store, it's not enough to think about how to get someone to walk in the front door. It's devising brilliant plans to keep them there.
