Copy-Paste to Monopoly Thinking

Owning Your Market

Hey there 👋

Welcome to an issue of Arc - it was on pause, back now - learn more by clicking here.

Basically, Arc is where my rough ideas go, some work out nicely, some don’t - so if you are ever reading an issue in this category - please understand that it is my ‘writing sandbox’.

Let’s get into today’s topic.

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“Why does every service business in Pakistan feel like a clone?”

You’ve felt it too. The design agencies, web dev agencies, SEO agencies - they all blur together.

Same stack. Same pricing. Same tired pitch about being the "cost-effective partner" or the "full-stack team" ready to do everything under the sun.

In my office building alone I’ve counted at least 25 “agencies.” That’s in one building. One.

And the irony? I myself am in the process of opening an Agency….

But what’s more interesting is the real question behind all this repetition: Why does everyone start an agency? And more importantly, why do they all look the same?

The Services Trap

Let’s start with the obvious. In Pakistan - and similar ecosystems - starting a services business feels like the smartest move.

You don’t need to build a product, raise funding, or spend years perfecting some SaaS. You have a skill, maybe a bit of experience, and a laptop. You offer the skill to someone overseas, maybe outsource the work locally, and suddenly you’re a founder.

In a way, it’s brilliant. Low risk, fast returns, and no gatekeepers.

But this ease is exactly why we’re stuck.

The market becomes bloated
Everyone’s offering the same things
Everyone competes on price by default

The $5/hr gig race begins on platforms like Upwork and Fiverr, and with it, the death of margin, differentiation, and growth.

So in today’s issue I want to go over a concept, Perfect Competition Vs Monopoly.

Perfect Competition: The Commodity Trap

In economic theory, perfect competition is an ideal state of the market.

At one end of the market spectrum, you have perfect competition. It’s an idealized state where every seller offers the exact same thing. No one has power over pricing. No brand loyalty, no differentiation. Just a sea of identical offers, each one undercutting the next.

Every product is the same
Every business has equal opportunity-and the same limitations
No one can raise prices or dominate the market
Profits vanish as soon as someone else enters and undercuts

On paper, it sounds fair. Equal access, no monopolies, no abuse of power.

But the more you move closer to that end of the scale in real life, it becomes a trap.

You’re not seen as a partner. You’re seen as a commodity. Just another profile, another agency, another “we do everything” pitch. Your value gets reduced to a number. Clients scroll past your work and land on your rate.

This is where most service providers in Pakistan find themselves today. Not because they’re not skilled - but because they’re operating too close to the commodity line.

The smart move isn’t to compete harder there. It’s to move away from it entirely.

Monopoly Thinking: The Power Play

At the opposite end of the spectrum lies monopoly.

In theory, a monopoly is when one player owns the entire market. They control pricing, standards, distribution, even demand. No one else really has a shot.

Monopolies typically -
Set the price
Control the standard
Are hard-if not impossible-to copy
Maximize profits instead of scraping by

That’s not what we’re chasing here. What we’re after is monopoly thinking.

Monopoly thinking is what happens when you position yourself in a way that makes you hard to replace. You define your niche, control your process, and set your own terms.

Clients come to you not because you’re cheap - but because you’re the only one who does what you do, how you do it.

It’s not about building Google. It’s about building enough focus, clarity, and leverage that you stop being compared entirely.

This isn’t done by offering more services. It’s done by narrowing your scope, sharpening your process, and delivering value in a way that’s built to last.

Why Services Rarely Become Monopolies

But let’s be honest - services are hard to scale in a defensible way.

Anyone can enter the market. Anyone can learn how to use Figma, whip up a landing page, or offer a Website template. The barrier to entry is almost nonexistent.

On top of that, most service work is manual. If you get more clients, you need more people. If you want to grow revenue, you have to work more hours - or hire someone who can.

And unless you’ve built a truly unique system, most of what you do can be copied. Your pitch deck. Your deliverables. Even your branding.

So unless you’re building something on top of infrastructure - like healthtech, fintech, telcos - you can’t rely on natural moats. You have to build your own.

Three Levers That Move You Out of the Commodity Pile

You don’t need funding. You don’t need a team of ten. You just need to rethink the way you frame and deliver what you do.

Start by Niching Ruthlessly

Forget “we build websites.” That statement puts you in the same boat as a thousand others. Try reframing to something like: “We build appointment booking sites for dentists in UAE.”

See the difference?

You shrink your market, yes. But you immediately become the go-to choice for a very specific kind of client. The result is less competition, higher trust, and far more pricing power.

This is uncomfortable for many founders. Saying no to 90% of leads feels risky. But saying yes to everyone keeps you stuck at the bottom.

Then, Turn Services Into Products

Here’s the truth: services don’t scale. But products do. And you don’t need to be a dev shop to build products.

Look at your most common service and ask: can this be turned into a repeatable, packaged offer?

It could be a templated landing page package. It could be a recurring SEO audit tailored to real estate businesses. It could be a dashboard for Shopify stores with pre-built analytics.

The key isn’t automation - it’s productization. Take the thing you already do well and shape it into something that feels tangible, repeatable, and outcome-focused. Clients don’t want hours. They want results they can predict.

Finally, Build a Moat - Even If It’s Small

Ask yourself two things:

1. What makes this hard to copy?

2. What gets better the more clients I serve?

The answers might be a unique onboarding experience, a content system tailored to one vertical, or proprietary data from serving a specific niche.

Monopolies win with network effects, proprietary tools, brand trust, or deep integrations.

You can’t build all of that. But you can start with one. Build something your competitors can’t just download or replicate from your portfolio.

A Website template isn’t a moat.
But a booking site you’ve built for 20 dentists in UAE - one that saves them time, ranks on Google, and gets passed around on their WhatsApp groups?

That’s the start of something no one else can touch.

Monopoly Thinking Doesn’t Mean Monopoly Behavior

Let’s get this clear. Real monopolies; Facebook, Google, Apple, deserve the regulatory heat they get. They restrict competition and innovation.

But monopoly thinking doesn’t mean hoarding power. It means owning your process, your lane, your clients.

It means you’re not forced to undercharge because “someone else can do it cheaper.”
It means your clients don’t leave you for a 10% discount.
It means you grow on your own terms - not the market’s.
And most importantly, it means you’re building something that can last, not just survive.

The Hard Part is Saying No

Here’s the trap: most agencies try to escape sameness by adding more services.

Design plus dev. Then copywriting. Then SEO. Then ads. Then video. The service list becomes a buffet menu, and the business becomes a dhaba.

It feels like growth. But it’s just dilution.

The real work? It’s in restraint.

Monopoly thinking is a long-term game. And most of us are still playing yesterday’s strategy.
We say yes to whatever lands in the inbox. We reshuffle our offerings based on the last client who ghosted.
We try to sell to everyone - because saying no feels risky.

But being a monopoly means holding a higher standard - and standing by it.
It means focusing relentlessly on the slice of the market you want to own, not the entire menu.
It means designing systems and services with enough clarity that you stop adjusting your business every time a client asks, “Can you also do X?”
It means understanding that control doesn’t come from more services-it comes from sharper ones.

You don’t need to dominate the world. You just need to dominate your corner of it.

That only happens when you stop chasing and start choosing.

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