Loren Feldman made the point that business owners are burning out trying to compete with WalMart.

Might be right.

You don’t want to pick a fight with the WalMart big dog, or possibly the Target big dog, either.

If anything, and we have a pending project to do this, use WalMart as a benchmark for products and services because, as large as they are, they’re pretty nimble. And then we reverse engineer.

So, we say develop products and services that WalMart (or Target for that matter) doesn’t carry. In the process, you get unique offerings that will stand out from WM, and even the rest of your competitors.

For example, we have a client who has a water-saving hose nozzle under development, which won’t be found at WalMart unless they approach him with an offer (I’ve seen it happen) at reasonable price points. In his case, we might dodge big dog Ace Hardware, too, although they’re pretty easy to deal with.

We plan to use internet and social media to publicize the nozzle (the domain is already registered) and a prototype GoDaddy site is parked with GD. I plan to personally test it, given the size of my water bills.

So, if you have a product idea, use WalMart for reverse engineering and a competitive survey of what’s out there,

Do a focus group over lunch at a restaurant and invite some people you know who might be interested.

But don’t panic over a little incoming, gang.