As an entrepreneur you get consumed by perfection and your idea. Not so much for services, but for products (websites, software, etc.) you have a vision in your mind that can’t be wiped clean. You don’t want to go to market till you hit this perfection stage. But the question I ask is “does it really exist”?
I’m going to go on a limb and argue that it doesn’t exist. There is always something that can be changed or altered to make improvements. If you do think you have a perfect product or service then you are a fool and your competition will stalk you down like the Honey Badger. You should always be looking to adapt and innovate to avoid complacency.
One of my favorite authors, Guy Kawasaki, talks about this concept in his book The Art of The Start. The major point that Guy makes is simple; “Ship, fix, ship, fix, ship, fix, ship…instead of fix, fix, fix, ship.” He does admit there are pros and cons to this strategy which can be pointed out below:
PROS
- Immediate cash flow
- Real-world feedback
CONS
- Tarnished image if there are quality problems
In order to help avoid a tarnished image, Guy makes note that you can consider the following questions to help with your decision to go to market:
- Does our product or service, at this stage of development, leap frog the competition?
- Can we ship into a geographic location or market segment that is small and isolated, so that potential damage is limited?
- Does our product or service largely fulfill our vision for making meaning?
- Does it largely fill the needs of our customer?
Once you ask yourself these questions and you are confident your product or service meets the criteria, GO TO MARKET! When I was working on my first start up, I had a product that was good enough to go to market. What did I do? I kept waiting and nit picking every aspect of my business. Then when I wasn’t confident my first web developer could complete my vision, I moved on to another development company that guaranteed to deliver my product better then the first guy. Well about 2 years later the second company ensured my product was further away then it was when working with the original web developer.
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