14/07/22

In business – just like in life – you can only be sure of two things, death and taxes. If you want to protect your company from an untimely demise and want to see it flourish, simple brainstorming might not be enough. You have to take it a step further.

Check out: If You Want to Survive, Find Ways to Compete With Your Own Business

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Listen

compete

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Glossary

  • cash cow – a business, investment, or product that provides a steady income or profit
  • myriad – a countless or extremely great number of people or things
  • disrupt – interrupt (an event, activity, or process) by causing a disturbance or problem
  • classified ad – classified advertising is a form of advertising which is particularly common in newspapers, online and other periodicals which may be sold or distributed free of charge. Advertisements in a newspaper are typically short, as they are charged for by the line, and one newspaper column wid
  • downturn – a decline in economic, business, or other activity
  • monetize – convert into or express in the form of currency
  • up front – (of a payment) in advance

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Think about it

Answer the questions below.

  • What does the author say about Warren Buffet and Google?
  • Why wasn’t the author’s first business model successful? What did he and his business partners do?
  • What happened to their second business model?
  • What is Apple a great example of?
  • What may ultimately happen if you don’t actively look for ways to compete with yourself? Do you agree?

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Practice makes perfect

Fill in the blank spaces with the missing words. Use ONE word per blank space.

We were successful with our model of selling websites ________ eight years, until the Great Recession of 2008 hit and customers could no longer afford to ________ $5,000 to $15,000 on their websites.

During the recession, we introduced ________ website leasing program. This allowed our customers to get ________ features they needed affordably, since banks wouldn’t finance a website and they didn’t have access to other credit. Making this change hurt because we ________ longer received a several thousand dollar payment ________ front. We took on a lot more risk and essentially ________ up our previous business model. Fortunately, the leasing program was a hit during the recession and we actually grew ________ revenues and profits during ________ downturn.

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Explore it more

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