The number one reason people give me for giving up on something great is, "someone else is already doing that."
Or, parsed another way, "my idea is not brand new." Or even, "Oh no, now we'll have competition."
Two big pieces of news for you:
1. Competition validates you. It creates a category. It permits the sale to be this or that, not yes or no. And this or that is a much easier sale to make. It also makes decisions about pricing easier, because you have someone to compare against and lean on.
2. There are six billion people in the world. Even if your market is hand-made spoke shaves for left-handed woodworkers, there are more people in your market than you can ever hope to track down.
More ...
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/08/competition.html
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