Too Much Competition? How to Create Your Own "Blue Ocean" and Find Your Clients

Are you dreaming of starting your own business but are stopped by the fear that the market is already full? You look around and see successful entrepreneurs who seem to have invented everything and captured all the customers.

This fear often creates a "scarcity mindset," where running a business feels like a zero-sum game where for you to succeed, someone else must fail.

Let me tell you: this is a myth. It's a self-limiting belief keeping you stuck. There is another way, an approach called the "Blue Ocean Strategy," where creativity, imagination, and abundance are the order of the day.

The Core Idea: Make Your Competition Irrelevant

The secret to winning is to stop trying to compete. You are not signing up to fight for survival in a "red ocean" full of bloody competition. You are creating your own "blue ocean", an uncontested market space, by finding your unique niche and serving customers in a way no one else has.

This approach is famously detailed by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim in their bestselling books, Blue Ocean Strategy and its sequel, Blue Ocean Shift. These books provide concrete steps and inspiring case studies for finding and building your own blue ocean.

You don't have to follow the old rules of your industry; you can come up with your own. Here are three powerful mindset shifts to help you find your blue ocean.

Shift 1: Look Outside Your Industry

To start, take your existing industry mindset and put it in a box. You won't need it. If you want to create something new, it seems natural to look at the successful experts in your field for inspiration, but we're not going to do that.

Most industries have entrenched, traditional ways of doing things—a cookie-cutter approach for how they operate and serve customers. These businesses are often exact copies of each other, creating a crowded and intimidating market. If your dream is to build a business on your own terms, why would you start by repeating what you already dislike?

Instead, start looking for inspiration in other sectors. How do they innovate? How do they serve customers? This shift moves you from competitive thinking to creative thinking, allowing you to serve a whole new market that may not have even existed before.

Shift 2: Talk to the People Who Reject Your Industry

When you want to design your services, don't ask for advice from people who are already happy with the traditional players. Their feedback will likely replicate what already exists and push you toward competing on price.

Instead, focus on the "non-customers", the people who aren't buying from your industry. Why don't they buy? What are their frustrations? What would need to change for them to become a customer?

Boom. You have found your hidden treasure. There is a vast, untapped market of people turned off by the traditional model. Their unserved needs and pain points are your opportunities.

Shift 3: Break the Value-Cost Trade-Off

The third shift is to break the assumption that higher value must mean higher cost. In many industries, this logic is unbreakable: more value means more time, which means more cost.

This simply is not true.

Why would you sell your customers time when you can sell them value? This question is a game-changer. By finding innovative ways to deliver what your customers truly value, you can create a high-value service without being trapped by old cost structures.

The Secret Ingredient Is You

The journey to entrepreneurship is an emotional roller coaster filled with fears and internal blocks. These fears are a natural part of the journey. They prove you are a human, approachable, and authentic person.

Building your dream business happens one piece at a time. Taking small, digestible steps is much easier than a terrifying bungee jump, and it allows you to build the confidence you need to create your beautiful blue ocean.

Are you ready to find your own blue ocean with me? Book a discovery call to decide the next step.