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by OpieCunningham 5274 days ago
You don't get it. Your competitors cheat. Illegally. They don't pay customs, they don't pay taxes, they don't pay social security, and they get away with it. No matter how good your business plan is, your illegal competitors, who often shamelessly copy your otherwise excellent product / idea / service will do it for 1/3 of the price. They simply have a huge, very unfair advantage against us, who do business legally.

You need to find a business which is less easy to copy and/or one in which you can offer significant benefit vs. an illegal competitor. It's that simple. In the U.S. we have an identical situation to what you describe in the services industry: outsourcing. I need to charge X in order to survive as, say, a web developer, whereas someone in India or Vietnam can charge 1/X for essentially the same service. Now it's my decision whether to create enough benefit for a customer to continue in that field, knowing that many potential customers will simply outsource, or identify another field where I can provide a service that is not as easily outsourced.

Competition is competition, in respect to your business plan the legality is irrelevant.

1 comments

Outsourcing is similar, but still very different issue. Agreed, as a web developer you have to compete with worldwide competition, that may be "unfair". Yes, you have to find a business plan, that still works. It's that easy.

But nationwide local corruption is a different game. Let's say you run a small restaurant. The guy next door opens one, and their menu is as good as yours, but costs 1/2 of your prices. You can't match them, because of all the dirty tactics. You have two options. Go out of business, or start using those dirty tactics too, and then you become a part of the problem.

You can tell me there are other options, like, I don't know, turning my restaurant to something completely different, but the principle still stands. Whatever I do, if it's successful, illegals will copy it exactly, but sell cheaper. It's just a question of time. It's a national sport.

It's the survival of the most corrupt (not the fittest).