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One of the joys of owning a business is to maintain its uniqueness.

When our business fails to be unique it loses its point of difference and fades back to blend in with everybody else.

It becomes vanilla.

There’s a weird equilibrium that needs to be established as you strive to gain your competitive edge in your marketplace.

Because what sets you apart from your competitors and makes you stand out from the crowd can also be easily copied by your competitors.

And I suppose that mimicry is the greatest form of flattery.

But it kind of gets frustrating sometimes when your point of difference starts to pop up in places that it should not.

The way that McDonalds Corp dealt with its competitors who copied was to not try and sue their pants off but rather to just keep getting better and better at what they do, so that the competitors were left behind eating the dust of yesterdays gone by.

It is disappointing when you see your intellectual property used, or misused, without permission.

The trouble is, there’s so much vanilla around that it’s not hard to see when something else stands out from the crowd.

Dan Kennedy used to say that the best way to be successful in business is to look at what every one of your competitors is doing and then simply do the opposite.

And similarly, you can take note of those who are doing what you think is different from the crowd. They could be onto something that you could tweak to your advantage.

I’m not suggesting “borrowing” someone else’s hard work.

And through the years I’ve seen some obvious blatant theft of Intellectual Property by those who should know better.

I’ve seen the name “Active Dental” pop up in other places across town. Hmm. Haven’t those other dentists got an original bone in their body?

And the practice name Fine Dentistry. I know it originally belonged to a friend of mine, but it sure appears in a lot more places than it should.

But what’s in a name?

What’s in the words?

As I teach and write and coach there are those who say they do what I do.

But they don’t.

They’re simply mouthing it.

If they didn’t invent it how could they believe in it?

And deliver it with passion?

It’s just lip service.

“Word Class Dental Customer Service” and “Ultimate Patient Experiences” are best learned from the inventor and not from some cheap plagiarist adding it into their presentation and going along for the ride.

Because it’s more than just a ten minute segment, or five pages in your book somewhere.

Sure, there’ll always be copy watches for $20.00. And fake LV bags.

But there’s no substitute for owning a TAG Heuer watch.

And I’m sure that telling your mum that you dragged off a European car at the lights is not the same peace of mind you would have as parking one in your garage each night.

Seek out the innovators. And seek out those who have done the hard yards.

Because they’ll always have great ideas. Not just other people’s copy.

Remember, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear…

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Have you read my book , How To Build The Dental Practice of Your Dreams [Without Killing Yourself!] In Less Than Sixty Days.

You can order your copy here: Click Link To Order

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The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.

Email me at david@theupe.com

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