What Makes Your Business Stand Out From The Crowd?

My wife and I have been spending the last couple of weeks going through a back catalogue of Ally McBeal episodes.

For anyone who has not heard of Ally McBeal before (are these people actually out there?!!!! LOL), it was a U.S. comedy/drama series that launched in 1997 and finished in 2002, based on the antics of a zany Boston law firm called Cage and Fish.

The storyline is borderline insane - it has everything from an "out of love" female lawyer who sees imaginary "dancing babies" right through to a male lawyer who drops dead of a brain tumor in the middle of a court case.

As crazy as this all sounds, the series is testament to the brilliance of its creator - David E. Kelley - because at its very core the series is all about caring, kindness and the importance of friendship and being there for each other in times of difficulties.

Watching this series has almost become an obsession with us - it has even got to the point where our oldest son is saying "Are you guys watching this again?!!!" - and it got me thinking about what draws us to a television show that finished more than a decade ago when there are hundreds - if not thousands - of new TV series that we could be watching.

The answer is quite simple - there is just nothing like it out there!!!

The characters are so endearing that you simply want them in your lives - characters like the kind, caring, brilliant lawyer and co-founding partner - John Cage - who makes sounds like Porky Pig and dates a school teacher with Tourette's, right through to John Cage's best friend and co-founding partner - Richard Fish - who is not the "strongest" of lawyers and is about as politically incorrect as you can, but who you can't help but like as you watch him get upset when things at the law firm get "serious", because the reason why he started a law firm in the first place was to have fun - and make as much money as possible!!!!

The ability for this series to "stand out from the crowd" has got me thinking about what we, as small business owners, can do to make more potential customers "notice" us.

There is so much "noise" out there these days that if all we are doing is promoting our "quality customer service" and our "guaranteed lowest prices" then no-one will ever hear us, because we are just one of the millions of small businesses out there saying exactly the same thing.

What can you do differently, so that customers will be drawn to your products and/or services over those of your competitors?