The Essential Entrepreneur, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 4Timing is everything

Having the right product or service (I'll call these the ‘product’ from here on in for simplicity) at the right time is essential when starting a business. You can have the best product in the world but if the world isn't ready for it, you'll face a high risk of failing.

If you need to educate the market you'll burn a lot of cash, and when starting a new business for the first time cash is usually a very limited commodity. If you run out, it's literally ‘game over’, both for the business and possibly for you personally as well, which can set you back a long way in life.

You might find that you're too late to the market because someone whose timing was perfect has beaten you to it. There's good and bad in that. On the bright side, they may have spent the money required to educate the market. However, they will have also taken the lead brand position, leaving you to play costly catch-up trying to position your brand over theirs. In addition, you'll have to do things better than them by further disrupting the market (see chapter 9 for everything you need to know about disruption).

Technology is a classic example. With technology you can do many incredible and wonderful things, but if the product or application you've developed doesn't solve a problem currently facing people or businesses, you're going nowhere fast. If you believe it does solve a problem, but people just don't know it yet, then you'll have to do a lot of educating, and getting the ...