Evolution, Not Revolution, for Business Growth

Consumers aren’t looking for brand-new products. They are looking for clever new adaptations of products they already know and love.

What does this mean to you as an entrepreneur?

For one thing, it means that your goal is not to develop brand-new ideas, but to notice trends that are beginning and develop products that anticipate that trend by a little – just enough to catch your customers’ attention.

It also means that you must be humble. Innovation isn’t usually about genius. It is more often about trial and error. If you are always trying to come up with product ideas that are completely new and different, you will likely have a very poor success record.

Imitation – knocking off your competitors’ products – doesn’t work, because it is always too little and too late. But noticing what products are working and then creating new products with features that are somehow more advanced – that’s how you get the breakthroughs.

The secret, as we used to say in the 1960s, is evolution, not revolution.

And your job as your company’s innovation leader is to be sensitive to industry trends and to develop all sorts of new and better versions of products that are already trending upward.

[Ed. Note: The above was adapted from Michael Masterson’s book, Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat, published with permission of John Wiley & Sons. The book has hit the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Business Week lists of business best-sellers.

Michael shows how veteran and rookie entrepreneurs alike can take their businesses to the next level. You’ll learn how to identify and solve the problems that crop up during each stage of a company’s growth… and how to take advantage of profit opportunities along the way. Order your copy of Ready, Fire, Aim now.] [Ed. Note: Mark Morgan Ford was the creator of Early To Rise. In 2011, Mark retired from ETR and now writes the Palm Beach Letter. His advice, in our opinion, continues to get better and better with every essay, particularly in the controversial ones we have shared today. We encourage you to read everything you can that has been written by Mark.]