You may have been the only game in town for a long time – the only wedding planner specializing in destination weddings on a particular island, the only bridal stylist focused on celebrities, the only documentary-style photographer with an in at Vogue, the only high-trafficked wedding blog in your niche, the only workshop that sold out within a week every year – but those days are numbered, if they still exist at all.
"Only" is nuanced and competition presents you with a choice between being bitter or better.
You may still be the only one in the world who does exactly what you do exactly the way you do it, but to the untrained eye or new potential client who has never needed to hire your type of service before, that distinction may not be clear.
If you're finding that you now have others claiming to do what you do, throw yourself a pity party for twenty minutes and then get busy raising the bar . . . again.
Originally published September 2012
