Professional Jealously Will Destroy Your Business

I am involved in two separate companies. I'm the Managing Director of Slightly Unusual Ltd and the Marketing Director of Non Stop Kids Entertainment Ltd. Both of these companies have become very successful and continue to grow as we expand throughout the UK and beyond.

One thing I have noticed about the industry I compete within is the amount of jealously that taking place especially by 'professional' entertainers. The perfect example is Britain's Got Talent.

Unless you have been living under a rock these last few months Richard Jones won Britain's Got Talent. He is the first magician in 10 years of the programme that has gone on to win. His performances were very well thought out and executed and more importantly the general public loved him.

However ever since his win a number of magicians that should know better have taken to social media to talk about how terrible his act was, was terrible he is and why he should not have won. Generally these magicians will continue to say that they could have done better and that it is ridiculous that he has won.

Now this HAS happened before. Over the years magicians will try to put down whichever performer is in the spotlight. Dynamo, one of the most successful magicians of recent years, gets a kicking constantly by the magic community because of his 'boring' style.

Now I should point out that not all magicians are like this. Several support their fellow performers and rejoice in their success however there is a growing group that think its okay to attack anyone that is having any success in the industry.

I have experienced something similar with Non Stop Kids Entertainment. As a company Non Stop Kids has grown very quickly. The company now handles over 3000 parties a year, has a National presence and has over 30 team members delivering parties on a quickly basis. We hold contracts with some of the biggest companies in the UK including supplying entertainment for both Alton Towers Hotels.

Traditionally the children's entertainment industry does not work like this. You tend to find most performers are 'one man bands' and just arrange work for their own needs. The backlash we have experienced from children's entertainers around the UK has been nothing short of extraordinary. We get attacked on social media and in person. We get told we are destroying the industry, taking work away from people that deserve it more and that we send kids straight out of school out to do parties with virtually no training. They have even done a parody video poking at any companies that dare to try and expand and grow and show any entrepreneurial spirit at all.

This couldn't be further from the truth. Our performers have more experience in entertaining than most. We have people working for us that are professional singers and actors, ex Disney Staff, ex Holiday Park Staff and even children's entertainers that have given up their business and decided to work with us exclusively. There is nobody working for us under the age of 23 and the oldest entertainer is 48. We get over 50% of work from word of mouth and our training and monitoring systems we have in place is second to none. We even have a very comprehensive training website just for use by our team.

So why do people feel threatened by success and feel the need to lash out? It doesn't matter if it's a TV magician or a Kids Entertainment company it happens all the time. But it's not just the entertainment industry, in every industry there are cases of professional jealously.

The simple fact is that some people hate it when they see others do better than them. Rather than use this feeling to motivate them to work harder instead they become bitter and decide the best course of action is to attack anyone that is more successful than them. This attitude is counter productive and is exactly the opposite of what you should be doing if you want to get ahead in business.

Here are some points that have worked for me over the years that you can use if you find yourself getting wound up that a competitor is doing better than you

1. Set long term and short term goals. This way you can measure success by whether you are achieving your goals. It does not matter that 'person x' is doing better than you as long as you are on target to achieve the goals that YOU want to achieve.

2. Start thinking long term and not short term. Taking magicians and BGT as an example the short term way of looking at things is that Richard Jones is now the most successful magician in the UK and it will affect your business. The long term way of looking at things is that because of his win magic is now more popular in the UK than ever before. More and more clients will want to book magicians and this will have a positive impact on your own amount of work.

3. Focus on what you are doing and stop caring about other people. Every minute you think about how what a competitor is doing is another minute you are not focusing on what is important - you and your business. Don't waste time with negative thinking as it never leads to a positive outcome.

4. Understand that the world is a big place. I get told all the time that Non Stop Kids Entertainment is taking work away from other kids entertainers. I even had an entertainer threaten that I should keep out of Manchester as that is 'his patch'. It doesn't matter how many parties my company is doing there is more than enough work for everyone. And if you are struggling it is not because of us its because you don't know how to run your own business effectively. Learn more about marketing, work out whats going wrong within your business and develop systems and strategies to fix the problem.

5. Develop relationships and network. Competitors could be your closest ally if you decide to go down that route. There are kids entertainers that have reached out to me and I pass them a lot of work that we cannot do simply because they asked. Rather than looking at that competitor as the enemy instead build a relationship with them.

I hope this has helped and if you get just one thing out of this article remember to avoid negativity and keep your goals in mind. If you do this success will just be around the corner.

If you have any questions please reach out to me via my website

www.slightlyunusual.co.uk

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