I’ve started several businesses in my life… a brick and mortar straight out of college, several affiliate websites, several blogs, a product line and an eCommerce website. If there is one thing I could pass on to anyone that’s starting their first business it would be… don’t wait for everything to be perfect before you go for it and open. Go for it now!
Before opening my first business and first few websites, I made the mistake of waiting for everything to be perfect. At least in my mind I thought everything was lined up correctly, every kink worked out, every bit of marketing and advertising in place. I was wrong. Even though I thought it was ready, I soon learned that running a business is extremely dynamic. You have to be very, very flexible and ready to roll with changes as the business progresses forward.
Fast forward to about 2002 or 2003. I was reading a book (unfortunately I can’t for the life of me remember what it was) about marketing. There was a few short paragraphs that really made a light go off in my head. Basically, the author explained why you should never wait for a product or business to be perfect before launch. If you have a rough draft of a product, get it out there. If you have a 1st draft of a website.. publish it to the public. Got a new logo, show it off.
Time is what will perfect your product line, site and ideas. Getting feedback. Having the product get used. Getting other eyeballs on what you’re doing. These are the things that make something better.
I’m currently following a new business owner that’s making this exact mistake of waiting. She’s about to launch a product line that is somewhat similar to mine. She’s keeping the prototypes of the product a secret, the website, logo and everything else a secret. Why? There are two reasons. She wants everything to be perfect and she’s worried about copycats.
Here’s the problem with this type of thinking. Everything will never be perfect. Anyone that has run a website knows that websites are in a constant state of change. The internet, SEO, competition is always changing and websites have to roll with these changes. By waiting she’s just delaying having the search engines index her site.. and she’s delaying on getting feedback from her potential customers. Copycats is her second worry. I hate to burst her bubble, but anything she does will probably be copied now matter what she does to try and protect it. It’s way to easy for another company to take her product, deconstruct it, slightly alter it, and have China producing them in less than a month.
So my advice to any new small business owner is to not wait. The internet, eCommerce, retail… it all dynamic and very social. Just relax. Release your ideas, products, websites, new logo, etc… on the world. Get the word out there, get people talking about you, get into the conversation, market and advertise what you do have ready. You’ll be amazed at the helpful people in this world that will catch things you never thought of. Don’t wait.. Go for it now!
Reversal… In my opinion the above applies to most new small businesses and ideas. There are examples where you don’t want to release information. Do you have the next Facebook platform in the works? You should probably keep that under wraps. Do you have some completely new electronic device that will forever change the world? You’ll probably want to keep that a secret til it’s ready. These big ideas usually relate to big companies. For the small business with a few products or new site.. don’t wait!
photo credit: Rich Anderson
Hi, I'm Steve... an eCommerce merchant that writes about eCommerce, advertising, marketing, blogging, design, social media, seo, tech and other randomness.
Thank you for this Steve! Exactly what I needed to hear. I’ve been thinking and planning for years about starting my handmade business but have always been searching for the ‘right’ time. After reading this, I’ve realized that the ‘right’ time is NOW!