Being a solopreneur comes with more than just professional challenges; it can be an emotional roller coaster filled with highs, lows, and everything in between. A large part of this up-and-down ride has a lot to do with our habit of scoping out the competition and letting their success (or appearance of) increase the amount of pressure we put on ourselves. The inherent need to constantly compare our abilities, offerings, prices, and even our caliber of clients is practically a thorn in our side that keeps growing. And, it prevents us from growing as professionals. This is, most likely, one of the harshest solopreneur challenges that we face daily.

The more we focus on who is around us and if they’re doing more or better, we suffer - especially, when it comes to client recruitment and servicing our existing customers. In turn, we hold ourselves back from achieving what we’re capable of which is scaling our business to the fullest. Out of the many solopreneur challenges to have, constant comparison is one of the most detrimental.

The Odds Feel Never in Our Favor

One of the most common reasons we’re so quick to pit ourselves against our market competition is because we’re seeking the same type of approval as they are - from prospects and new customers. We’re all constantly vying for attention and at times, we may become frustrated with just shouting about our offerings into a dark void. Our business pitches fall on deaf ears, our services or products get sized up against competitors, and we’re ghosted once and for all after talking cost or fee. So, it makes sense that the less new customers we attract or acquire, we instantly wonder why the industry competition is considered a better option than us. It’s as if we’re playing the lottery and our number never gets called because we don’t know how to strategically play the game as well as others.

This is where the scarcity mentality starts to settle in, too. We see how great our competitors are scooping up prospects and building new business relationships and we panic because, well, there’s not enough success to go around, right? Wrong. Sometimes, we might assume there isn’t enough business to go around, and that our competitors’ success diminishes or takes away from ours and even though it’s not true in reality, in our minds, this makes total sense and must be founded on some sort of truth.  

Highlight Reels are Not Real 

It’s easy to feel uneasy, though; our stomach does somersaults at the very sight of new clients, milestones, or achievements our competition publicly shares. And, then we take a look closer at a competitor or two. We stalk their social media pages, read testimonials on the websites, comb through their portfolios, and we're almost always thinking to ourselves “What’s the missing secret ingredient that I don’t have to offer and they do?” We’re honing in on the success they want us to see and not what’s actually happening behind their business’s closed doors. This perception of others' success is a solopreneur challenge that can cloud our judgment and lead to a serious case of imposter syndrome that paints us as undeserving professionals with no legitimate claim to our achievements. 

Logically, we know a highlight reel or two isn’t 100% accurate. But, it doesn’t stop us from making the external comparisons that negatively impact my internal thought process and by association, my confidence. Still, at conferences, on networking calls - we’re turning our heads to the person on our left and then we look to the person on our right. We actively allow ourselves to be intimidated by competitors. This self-doubt pollutes our minds, impacts our abilities to perform or recruit, and makes us question the value we bring to existing clients. It’s a vicious cycle intertwined with self-sabotage, ultimately kicking our businesses hard in the behind.

Not feeling good enough is a symptom of imposter syndrome that’s only exacerbated by focusing on our competition. But, here’s the thing: the market isn’t going to die down anytime soon. We’re always going to face-off with each other in one way or another. We’re going to have to push through and securely market ourselves, sometimes in cringey ways, to keep up with the competition and achieve the level of success we want. 

Measure Yourself By Your Own Standards

Despite the nagging desire to compare ourselves to our competition, there’s strength to be found in acknowledging our vulnerability and then realizing that sometimes our competitors will outweigh us – and that’s okay.  

If we start by embracing the intimidation that prevents us from trying our best to make a dent in the market, we can connect to those we need the approval of more deeply, and in an organic way that shows them the person behind the brand and prices. By showing our humanity, we build stronger, more meaningful relationships. This is something not all of our competitors will be able to do.

And, even if they can, who cares? Moving forward without rubbernecking the competition is a foolproof method to subduing the fear of being compared or looked as a failure in today’s market. We need to stay clear headed and focused on ourselves and our businesses without the hype of what “Steve” or “Caroline” is doing to capture new customers or position themselves as an industry leader, for example. Realizing your only real competition is yourself is easier said than done, but saying it out loud is a good start.  

*You have enough on your plate without having to worry about manual billing and chasing payments. Book a demo with Anchor today, grow your business, improve your conversion rates and find out how you can eliminate workflows and get paid by customers automatically. This way, you can focus on building yourself up as a solopreneur instead.