Competition

Next on creating The JMS Plan: Define Your Competition

My family is competitive. We eat fast. We were all active in at least two sports in high school. We turn every board game from Candy Land to Monopoly into the Super Bowl of board games. You could say my competitive nature is genetic.

I love winning.

I hate losing.

However, I have learned to grow you need to win AND lose. Winning creates a positive momentum. Where losing builds character.

iRewardChart

On any given day I can win or lose. Did Jessie Marie Studio score a new project? Win! Did that spelling error not get caught before it went to the printer? Loss. The secret is to celebrate the wins and to learn from the losses. And the mark of a successful business is to ultimately win more than it loses.

To compete successfully you need to know who or what you are competing against. Below are two lists of competitors for Jessie Marie Studio: the Internal Competition & the External Competition.

Internal Competition

Hourly Goals
10 billable hours per week
16 hours worked per week

Giving Goals
10% of all profits
Right now we are saving up the giving money to use for an ART for FREEDOM Gala in Spring.

Daily Goals
I have an the iRewardChart app on my iPhone for Cadence. She works for things like trips to restaurants, movie nights & extra bedtime stories. I set up a user for myself & I'm working for some Tom's shoes.

Quarterly Goals
Every quarter I set aside time for a quarterly retreat where I review the past quarter & set goals for the next. I get most of my structure for this from The Accidental Creative. This is usually accomplished in an afternoon at the library. My Hourly, Giving & Daily Goals come from that time. There are some other things I look at as well, but I won't bore you with them here.

External Competition

Design firms in town
ML Studios
Surface 51
Single Stereo
List of U of I preferred vendors
In house designers
Freelance designers
"Your Nephew"
Recent Graduates

Photographers - in CU
Missy Larson
Shannon Anderson
Holly Birch Photography
Steve Hale
Wright Photographers

Photographers - outside of CU
Pam Strohl
Kim Kedinger
Brooke Waala

I personally don't get the kick-em-in-the-knee-and-take-em-out feeling when I list out other designers & photographers I'm up against. I see the good ones as teammates who push me to the next level. And the bad ones, like "Your Nephew" who can make you a logo for free, annoying & not worth my time worrying about.