Did you know to succeed in business, you have to think about the timing of starting a business? When I started my business, I should have considered if it was the right time to start a business, and I just jumped right into it. No plan! No money! I took Nike’s slogan literally, “Just do it!” But because I understand at times, I overanalyze things until I feel good about them. Sometimes to a fault because things don’t get done. I keep myself in the same position in my daily journal, complaining about why my life is not improving. I try to do this every morning to hash out my feelings and discuss what I have going on that day. Before you reach success, you have to get your mindset together. But I didn’t consider the economic mindset, which correlates with timing.
Timing is vital to your business’s success or failure because you must figure out what people need during your current reality. In Ted Talk YouTube Video, Gross gave the example of Airbnb because when Airbnb launched, it was doing a recession, and people needed the extra money.
Timing is about asking and doing your research on what people need in your current economy.
You do this by comprehending the business market that you are in and catering to it. You can get to know your business market by:
- Research the current trends in your industry. You need to figure out what people are discussing.
- Research what products or services they are considering. Knowing this data now will aid you in developing an effective marketing strategy to tailor your offerings to meet your potential customer needs.
- Research your competitors and write down the things they are doing well and the things that are not going so well and are missing.
- You are figuring out your uniqueness from the rest of your competitors.
- The best way to continue serving your customers is to ask them about their needs and what they want to know or talk about. So, creating surveys or polls to gather feedback is essential to gain insight into your customer’s motivations and preferences.
- You have to cultivate your relationship with your customer. Therefore, think about ways to connect with them, such as through social media, email, or traditional marketing campaigns.
Gross also talked about other failed businesses, but I have a question. Did those businesses fail, or did they give up too soon? Timing is everything, even in what we call failure. I’ve closed down a few different business ideas just because I didn’t know what was next or what to do next. The decision to close down made it a failure. I could have kept pushing on until I figured it out. Isn’t that what we teach people today not to give up, to keep pushing through?
Let me give you another example; Payless shoes closed in 2019. A study was done where they opened a luxury shoe store with a different name, the same shoes, and higher pricing. People were buying Payless shoes because Payless positioned itself as a luxury brand. It was a success! This teaches us that sometimes closing down is not the answer when all you have to do is rebrand yourself to what consumers want. Change the messaging and relaunch! But don’t give up! When deciding to rebrand a business or how to position yourself in the market, I believe that “Team and Execution” in the TEDTalk were the second most important aspect to consider. When starting a business, you need smart, analytical, strategic thinkers around you who can help you solve problems. You need to see why your business is not doing so well and see if you can come up with a solution before closing doors. After adobe flash player was created, YouTube was birthed, which gave them perfect timing. There is no reason why Z.com couldn’t solve that problem on its own.
“Discipline is not a dirty word. There is far more freedom and opportunity for creativity and success in enjoying discipline. Years ago, someone I very much respect told me the reason they were successful is that they embraced doing what other people resent or are reluctant to do.” — Janice Bryant Howroyd
When I look at my actions to determine why I decided to close down my other business ideas, it will be because it was easier to close doors than to try fixing my issues. But I closed doors with millions on the table, not wanting to do the work. Remember, it is all about mindset. It is not like I didn’t come across interviews of other people with similar ideas; they made it because they kept working.