If you’ve been online, you have probably seen a lot of businesses advertising their services to you. You may wonder how they all get started and you may wonder about how you could start one. It is often said that you shouldn’t reinvent the wheel, usually because it’s a waste of time, but let’s explore how violating and adhering to the rule can benefit the beginnings of your business.
Reinvent the wheel in comparison to others. Now, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t learn from others, but what it does mean is that you should find a way in which you aren’t competing with rivals among a highly saturated group. You want to be able to stand out somehow and offer services that others can’t find elsewhere. So, if you see thousands of others doing the same thing you’re doing, then it’s time to either find how you can bring a uniquely more valuable proposition to customers, or you need to find something else to do.
For example, I am offering to research given topics in international relations on my Fiverr account. But there are a few others with the same basic value proposition. What I did to add to that proposition is offer to write in topics that affect international relations, like culture and history, in addition to the more properly policy-oriented topics. I hope to give customers a sense in which they can trust me to explore any kind of topic for them and give them the most complete picture possible on any issue. In this way, I am reinventing the form of business that I am pursuing.
But I’m not having to reinvent my skills, because I have already had experience in everything that I’m offering. It is new for others, but it’s not new for me. I have learned topics in these areas of study in university settings as well as on my own, and I feel confident in my ability to find a wheel I’ve already made and tailor it to meet my customer’s expectations.
But I can also copy wheels themselves. Because after I have set up a business on one platform, I can use the same ideas that I developed, even some of the same content, to market myself on other platforms. So use your own wheels over and over again!