The most difficult challenge for small business owners is to be limited to a single Unique Value Proposition (UVP). I am as guilty as any. In my third attempt to be more entrepreneur-like, I struggled for three years trying to be one thing and then the other, telling myself that I was adjusting to the market. Horse pucky! I was afraid to limit myself for fear of failure. And, sure enough, just like all the great authors tell us, what I focused on, I obtained—failure. Certainly not fall-down-and-die or bankrupt failure, but failure to accomplish my stated goals and objectives. My friends tried to help me find the right words to describe my business position. They would read my material and say, “Okay, but what do you offer? What do you want me to buy?” Deep inside the answer was, buy me. Believe in me! But that doesn’t work unless you’re an actor, artist, or entertainer—or does it?
The struggle to define your unique value to the market you want to serve is one of the most difficult, yet important aspects of starting your own business. Therefore coming up with a solution should precede all other activities in your development of an enterprise. Without a unique value to offer to the market, your service or product is just another commodity with limitless competition. But even the king of commodity, Wal-Mart™, has a UVP—“Your Low Price Leader.” If Wal-Mart needs a UVP, how can you ignore the need in your small business?
A Unique Value Proposition is the foundation to creating a business relationship, one that weathers the storms and outlasts the competition. It helps you establish customers for life. It helps you cement your business as a presence in the community. For example, I don’t have a long-term business relationship with the guy that currently mows my lawn, at least not one based on any UVP. He messes up and he is gone – period. Someone comes along and offers to do a comparable job for less and today’s guy is history.
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