How Long to Get First Sale: Six to Eleven Months.
If you wonder how long to get first sale, the average gap is around eleven months, with a median of six. Sixty per cent in an American panel study sold within four years. Steady activity predicts progress, while a written plan does not.
Sixty per cent within four years.
These figures come from the American panel study in chapter 4. Sixty per cent made a first sale within four years. However, fewer than one in five hired anybody or raised outside money then. So a first sale is the earliest real milestone, while the others sit much further out.
About forty-five per cent gave up before there was a firm at all. These nascent entrepreneur statistics show they never failed at business. Instead, they stopped during the part you are in now.
The timing behind how long to get first sale.
On average, the gap between deciding and the first sale is around eleven months. The median is six, but a quarter take fifteen months or more. Also, two-thirds still could not say, two years in, whether they had a real business. Therefore patience belongs in your plan from the start.
What actually moves you forward.
No particular order of activities predicts success, and writing a plan does not either. Instead, progress comes from doing more of the things, at a decent rate, over time. Belonging to a network of people in business also mattered. As for channels, the cold calling conversion rate is about two per cent, roughly one sale in forty-odd calls.
Track how long to get first sale for you.
Write the date you decided to start, so you can measure your own gap to a first sale.
Find one person already in business and arrange to talk with them this week.
From the book.
I'd temper all of that with one finding, which is that no particular order of activities predicts success. Writing a plan doesn't. What predicts getting somewhere is doing more of the things, at a decent rate, over a decent stretch of time. The one social factor that came out as mattering was belonging to a network of other people who were also in business, which is worth knowing if you have been treating this as a thing to do quietly and alone.
I Want to Start a Business but I Can't Quit My Job, chapter 12: One stranger, one payment, while you still have the job
Questions about how long to get first sale.
How long to get first sale for most founders?
The average is around eleven months and the median is six, though a quarter take fifteen months or more.
Does writing a business plan predict success?
No. No particular order of activities predicts success, and writing a plan doesn't either.
Which selling channels have real data?
Cold calling, at around two per cent, and door knocking, at two to three. Marketplaces, forums and local selling have essentially none.
Read the whole chapter.
This lesson covers one section of chapter 12, “One stranger, one payment, while you still have the job”. The book goes further, with the full evidence, the stories and every exercise.
Lessons in this chapter.
- 01 Building Credibility as a New Business: Own It.
- 02 First Sale to a Stranger: The Six Conditions.
- 03 Is One Sale Enough Validation: What It Proves.
- 04 Employee Duty of Loyalty: Prepare, Don't Solicit.
- 05 Fired for Side Business: Four Questions to Ask.
- 06 Turn a Hobby Into a Business: The Knitter's Runway.
- 07 How Long to Get First Sale: Six to Eleven Months.
- 08 No Sales for My Business: What Each Result Means.