So it has been done already. Now what?

“It’s already been done” #

The words I always see on Reddit and Indie Hackers where a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs and side project bros gather.

Pretty sure they really want you to have the next big idea, or be the early market entrant. The new Uber, the new Netflix, that new market disruptor that will make empires of the old fall. The new business that will change the lives of the people in a way that is… revolutionary.

Meanwhile, they will be approached by an agency owner who just finished a thousand-dollar SMMA course. That agency owner who is fuelled by generic, white-labelled pitch decks, contracts, and sales ‘scripts’ provided by that course; that had also been finished by thousands.

It has literally, already been done for them, you can tell them.

They may respond with… so what?

“At least be different” #

Of all the same business models and same ideas we’re being exposed to lately, this is a valid statement. The key is to not just copy what’s already been done but innovate to improve upon the idea.

“If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse.” The famous quote from Henry Ford. The invention of the car may be revolutionary and indeed necessary in the progress of humanity, but the idea of transporting people in carriages is not new.

Fun fact: Herny Ford was not the first to manufacture a car. He was majorly credited not with the actual invention of the car but with introducing the moving assembly line. It changed how we manufacture cars and how cars became available to the masses.

But it didn’t stop others from mass manufacturing their own brands of cars.

Be different to the ones that matter #

The “it has already been done” comments under IH and Reddit threads are common because a lot of the people in these communities are constantly exposed to these ideas. But it is not a reason to give up.

Let’s go back to the SMMA bros. Even though it bothers me a lot as a marketing nerd that they just put their Fiverr-made logos onto provided pitch decks and they just market themselves as marketers after taking one course, so what? My thoughts do not matter to them.

Even though they sell the same repackaged idea from their course creator, the idea may be new to others. The idea may be new or introduce a new flavor to the ones that matter to them, their target audiences.

So build on that idea that you are really passionate about. And be prepared in battling for customers against businesses with the same idea.

Establish differentiation, have a brand strategy.