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Is this a conflict of interest, a bad idea, or should I just go for it

by mimosa495
12 replies
I just ran into a situation, and I am not quite sure how to handle it. I thought I would get some input from other experts.

For background, my company is a full inbound marketing consulting company. We do content creation, SEO, video, social media, etc.

I have a client I did some SEO and content work for a very short time. One of the things that I did for them, was write some articles, and I turned some of those into video articles.

The company approached me to produce some video articles for them, Ala Carte. Ie, there would be no SEO, I am simply providing a video article.

I sent them a questionnaire, and discovered the video articles they want me to produce, are for another internet marketing company. That company is different from mine in how they approach their business, but they are definitely direct competition. They do social media, SEO, content ... so they are definitely direct competition.

This feels strange to me. On one hand, I am just going to be producing some content for them. Although it sounds like they may want more of a sales letter, which seems worse. But on the other hand, this company and I are more than likely going to be competing for the same clients.

Now, it is a big world and a big market, so I don't want to get into the discussion of "there is plenty of business to go around." I know that's true, and even here on the warrior forum, some marketing consultants sell info products and consulting to other marketing consultants.

This is not that I am concerned about the competition. If this company was subcontracting to me for one of their clients, that would seem fine. But this is for their own content on their own site. Which means I am helping their company compete with me.

Is this a conflict of interest? Am I the only person that feels weird about this? The articles are going to have my "voice", unless I use one of my writers for the writing, which in this case I probably will have to. Or is this normal business and should I go for it. How would you react in a similar situation?
#bad #conflict #idea #interest
  • Profile picture of the author zhao999
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author mimosa495
      zhao999, is your response on the wrong thread? I am confused.
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  • Profile picture of the author beeswarn
    Get a release to say "We're so good that even our competitors have to hire us to do it right!" or charge them extra to not say that.
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    • Profile picture of the author mimosa495
      Funny, that's almost what I was thinking about doing.
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    • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
      Originally Posted by beeswarn View Post

      Get a release to say "We're so good that even our competitors have to hire us to do it right!" or charge them extra to not say that.
      Yes, this is what I do..

      At first it made me wonder, why am I helping out my competition? Then I realize, I do it all the time here.

      The thing is, if my competition uses me for their own services (which SEO and full blown marketing I would never do for them) it just proves that they are not ready to compete with me. If someone is stuck in limbo on whether to use my company or theirs... guess who has the leverage? They may say, why should I choose you over xyz? Simple, because xyz chooses me over xyz! LOL.
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  • Profile picture of the author Blue Apple
    Take the contract. Someone is going to get it, and unless you're concerned about revealing your methods, it might as well be you. Besides, you can always disguise your voice with morphvox or the like.
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    • Profile picture of the author mimosa495
      My concerns are 2 fold:
      1. We are going after the same market. This concern is minor due to #2
      2. My work is much better. So, I am not worried about the competition, but I am a little more worried about improving the look of the competition.

      When the work was first quoted, it sounded like I was just going to make a short video article for them (for the other company I had worked with before). now it sounds like they want more of a sales video, which changes the process and increases the price. And the sales video is to sell their services (services which I also offer).

      Maybe, like IAmNameless and BeesWarn say, I just need to add some extra cost to make it worth it? Right now, I just feel like I am making a couple of bucks (I offered a great price based on what I thought I was going to do) to compete with myself :-).
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  • Profile picture of the author dropbear
    if they can get the same product quality from someone else, do it. Why throw away a $$ if they are just going to have someone else do it.. However, if you have a competitive edge re the video quality and they cannot get it anywhere else, either require "video created by xyz" on the video and charge high or don't do it..a few extra bucks is not worth assisting your competition..
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  • Profile picture of the author MaxReferrals
    Simple answer: Make sure you are licensing exclusive usage to them only, no one else.
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    • Profile picture of the author TheShark
      Don't do it.

      Why help the competition? I use to, but it started costing me more money than they were making me.

      Good luck.

      TheShark
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  • Profile picture of the author Seantrepreneur
    This is really up to you. I know that doesn't answer your question, but either way it's not a make or break situation for your business. If you feel like it's worth the money then do it. If you don't feel right doing this then I would suggest not doing it.

    Also, is this a local competitor or just another SEO company that services companies in the US? If that's the case than I guess I shouldn't be giving you advice either because we are competitors haha.

    Good luck,
    Sean
    Signature
    -------->Started with $500 on Amazon and building it from there. Week #1 income report is live ($593.78 in revenue)<----------
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  • Profile picture of the author mimosa495
    Sean, this was a local company. In direct competition, different business model, but same potential clients. I decided to make the video, since I had agreed to do it (before I knew who the video was for). But, I asked them to provide the actual content, so I just did the technical portion of the video, and let them write the copy. The technical "work" was not proprietary to me, so this way there was no conflict of interest. I also, just to be thorough, warned them that I was going to be making my own competing videos and content.

    Seemed like a good compromise, its one thing to do a job for someone, its another to "give away" your own intellectual property and copywriting skills. I explained that if they wanted to subcontract me for some of their clients work, we could talk.

    Like TheShark and DropBear said though, its really not worth the hassle for the few bucks to actually help your direct competition.
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  • Profile picture of the author econnors
    They may be able to reach a market you otherwise would not. I would offer them a white label solution keep my mouth shut about it. Building a white label reseller business is a great way to get stuff going. For example, I'm looking for a white label solution for my business. I'm not a "professional" web designer. Sure, I've done a few sites here and there, but there are many who know more than me. I want to get into the business, but I don't want to do the "work" myself. I'd rather just talk to people and sell the solution. While I will be in "competition" with them, I won't really be because I'll be sending work their way anyway. Everyone wins with a good NDA in place. :-)
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