Author Alan Maddick 03/07/2018
Timing in Business – Working providing business advice in the Mornington Peninsula quite often I get asked for business advice along the lines of “Is now the right time to start a xxxx” (insert your business) many times you will read or hear there is no right time, or the right time is now things like along the lines of you are better to act than sit on your hands and die wondering. Now to some degree I do believe this this right ie you do need to take risks and act in business but to some degree this is wrong you see I do believe timing is very very important in business. Starting your business or planning for growth can happen at the right time resulting in large and easy success, at the wrong time resulting in either a lot of work to get any results or at worst total failure of your business.
Both in my own business ventures as well as those of clients I have repeatedly seen timing be a major cause of large success stories. I have also seen hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted at no fault of the business owners involved – just bad timing. If you are looking at the timing implications for your project here are a few things to think about whether your business is on the Mornington Peninsula or anywhere in Australia the factors to look at are similar.
Political
How will the current political environment affect your business? What about if the government changes at the next election? You can see for some businesses political factors have a very direct effect for example;
Currently in Victoria the Labour government is very pro house development and is building a lot of new train crossings, this makes for great business conditions in the trades and civil contracting.
The current Victorian Labour government also banned commercial netting of fish in Port Phillip Bay, this directly negatively affected the businesses who used to commercially net fish in the bay (they are out of business!)
There are other less direct effects, for example in the 6 months leading up to an election some industries have a large slump in sales. Political change can also disrupt industries, disruption can allow access and opportunity to young/new businesses more easily able to adapt to the new market conditions than older businesses who are used to the old way of doing business.
Economic
Ignore the economy at your peril when starting a business, and when running your business! The national, state and local economy you operate in have a big effect on your business success and not always in ways you would immediately imagine. For example there are plenty of businesses that do very badly when employment is very good with strong wage growth (“good economic conditions”) others need these good economic conditions to succeed.
You need to be very critical in your analysis of the current economy and near term economic conditions before you start a business.
Social
Social factors can make or break your business (or not be a factor!) public opinion and goodwill can drive business growth on an exponential scale, there is the viral and populist way that todays online social media works as well as the more traditional (and perhaps reliable) real world word of mouth that tends to be built up more slowly.
Technological
In some parts of our life and business there are rapid technological changes occurring (what part of life has not been effected by technology over the last 10-20 years). Most of us not accept this is part of life but what does this mean for your new venture;
- What changes are coming or underway that will directly influence your business project?
- Change can lead to opportunity if you and your business are ready and wiling to change and adapt, are you ready?
- Technology can and has disrupted whole industries and sent some of the largest businesses in the world under. Is your niche about to or already going through major disruption?
Legal
The legal environment your business operates in can vary widely from a different industry. Australia is one of the most heavily regulated countries in the world, in some industries such as financial services this regulation creates a substantial cost and barrier to entry which is a disadvantage and cost that must be understood initially and later becomes an asset to existing businesses providing protection from mass entry of competitors.
As regulation and laws change this can also create disruption, change and opportunity of you take advantage of and understand these changes and how they effect you and your business.
Environmental
Ignore the environmental impact of your business at your peril! The environment we live in is obvious important (we live in it!) but environmental causes also have large social impact, this can be negative or if played well can be a competitive advantage for you.
In many cases there are emerging businesses and industries that are working in the environmental & sustainability space.