How long does it take for a small business to take off? The truth is, it depends. And it varies, wildly.
First, I need to clearly define what the term ‘take off’ will mean in my answer.
Most people would define a business ‘taking off’ as the point that it becomes financially successful, the point where it starts to scale, the point where it begins to employ staff, diversify its range of products and services, and so on.
Basically, it defines a business that is gathering momentum.
But when a business starts to ‘take off’, it presents new challenges – there’s never a point (until you successfully exit your business) where you should be able to sit back and say ‘my business is a success’.
If it feels like you’re successful and comfortable, whilst you’re still operating your business – you’re not pushing yourself hard enough.
When I reach a goal, I never sit comfortably and enjoy the moment for long, because I’m moving on to what we need to accomplish next. And usually, that next level of accomplishment requires more financial investment, more risk, more effort, and more energy.
When you’re constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible, you should never be able to sit back and say ‘I’m successful’ or ‘my business has taken off’.
So for simplicity, I’m going to define ‘taking off’ as the point that a business first begins to generate revenue.
Over the years, I’ve started quite a few different businesses, all of which had different timescales from startup to being in a revenue-generating state.
Here’s a list of all the different ventures I’ve started, and how long each one took from concept creation to starting to generate revenue.
- Cash management online tool website – 2 months
- Import/online retail business – 43 days
- Copywriting agency – 24 days
- Fresh food online retailer – 6 months
- Ambient food and drink retailer (online) – 4 months (have started several of these, all with a similar timescale)
- Ambient food and drink retailer (high street) – 1 month (first store was an acquisition, so was able to start faster than usual)
- Online course sales – 1 month
- Stem cell storage bank – 9 months
- Affiliate websites – 3 days
- Media agency – 14 months
- Clothing brand – 4 months
- Paid review website – 2 weeks (acquisition)
- Discount card concept – over 2 years and still going (expect to be revenue-generating within 3/4 years)
- Consulting business – 18 months
As you can see, there’s a huge range of diverse businesses that I’ve started, and all of which have very different leadtimes until they started to generate any revenue (or ‘take off’).
Even then, the rate of revenue generated from that point onwards varies wildly – some took several more weeks and months to generate another chunk of revenue, others grew rapidly right from the first bit of revenue.
I’ve found that there are generally two reasons why some businesses take noticeably longer than others to reach a revenue-generating state, and they are:
- It is dependant on the level of infrastructure you require for your MVP (Minimum Viable Product) – which is the most basic state in which your business can provide an offering to the marketplace. Some businesses (like our discount card concept) require masses of infrastructure, customised hardware, and system development to be able to operate even at the simplest level. These are generally the businesses with a greater level of risk attached to them – since you incur a greater cost before you can begin to test market response – but are also ones that, if successful, are hard to replicate and can operate behind some good barriers to entry, which prevent the industry becoming saturated too quickly
- The time it takes to ‘build trust’ with your intended audience. I’ve found, for example, service-based and brand-centric businesses (especially those centred around ‘advice’ or delivery of a promise), to take longer to build trust. In contrast, a retail business could start-up fast, by selling already-recognised brands, if you can achieve the best price online (whilst still maintaining profitability) – customers will buy. Even if you don’t yet have any reviews or recommendations – you’ll get sales based on recognition of the brand of the item you are selling, and the price-point you are selling it at.
The above should give you some indication of how long it takes for a small business to take off, and how much this is dependant on the type of business you are looking to start.