Is it good to be first to market with a product or an app or business idea?

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In this tutorial I discuss the advantages and disadvantages of being the first to market with a business idea for an app, website or any other kind of product.

Many people put a lot of focus on being the first to market with their business ideas because they think that if they are the first out of the gate with their ideas, that head start will help them run away from the rest of the competition and beat all the competition. In reality, that is rarely the case. Most companies who go first to market tend to spend quite a bit of money innovating and experimenting while the companies who come after them simply copy the ideas of the companies who came first, and get things done for a fraction of the price and in a fraction of the time it originally took. My advice is not to focus too much of being first to market, but rather to figure out how you can make your business competitive long term.

Many first-time entrepreneurs, or entrepreneurs who are early in their careers focus on the first to market advantage and allow that to drive many of their business decisions. While it sometimes advantageous to be the first company to market with a certain feature, service, or a product, in most cases the benefit of that is overblown. Consumers don’t ultimately care that much who was first. They do care that they get the best product or service for the best price. And if they recognize a brand (which may be because you got publicity from being first to market) they may trust a brand that they are familiar with more, and choose that company over another.

Getting Publicity From Being First To Market

If you are indeed first to market, one of the major advantages of that is that you can get publicity from various publications because you are presumably doing something new and innovative. That publicity can get you links to boost your SEO, and can get you brand recognition. Additionally, the publicity can get you actual clients. For most businesses, this would be my top reason for trying to be the first to market – so you can use that to get publicity, build your brand, and get clients.

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