Past Midway Ramblings on Business & Life

No One Else Is Doing It

If the market you want to enter is wide open, without competition, you might pause to ask yourself why. There may be a legitimate reason. It is possible to be too avant-garde. Completely original ideas without pre-existing competitors are difficult businesses to start.

On top of everything a new business must do right to succeed, you really don’t want to add “educate the customer” to your TO DO list. Even though a new concept has the potential for a larger payoff, it significantly reduces the probability of success. Although the upside might be much higher, I’d guess the statistical expected payoff is considerably lower, considering the increased failure rate.

Acknowledging this, General Electric used to have the mantra, “First to be second.”.

Starting a company is always an uphill battle. Introducing a completely new product or service is a taller hill, with a steeper slope.

I wouldn’t want to discourage people from developing completely new ideas (because someone has to do it) but be sure you really understand the problem you are solving and that the customer agrees that it’s worth buying.

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By Andy Jones
Past Midway Ramblings on Business & Life

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