Sun Tzu said, ‘The best strategy in war is to win without a fight.’ Deciding to go where your competitors aren’t could be a potentially rewarding strategy. By focusing on markets, products or services your competitors have avoided could be one way to carve out your own individual niche. Just be sure they weren’t avoided for very good reasons.
You can focus your energies and resources on making your idea successful rather than trying to compete with everyone else. You sacrifice a potentially larger market, which is likely to be far more competitive, for a smaller market that isn’t so highly contested. Think in terms of getting a larger piece of a smaller pie as opposed to a smaller piece of a larger pie.
By walking away from traditional ‘competitive strategy’ you avoid the same structures, frames and definitions for how your business must operate along with everyone else who is competing in that sector. You are able to exercise more creativity and flexibility as you will essentially be devising the rules for how to approach your niche market. ‘Going where the others aren’t’ can have real advantages.