The world's knowledge base doubles every few years with a consequent increase in buyer sophistication and demands. And small businesses are the first to be affected by changes in their marketplace. The majority of new consumer products are not patentable and thus are easily duplicated by other competitors. And many small companies do not have the resources to spend heavily to protect a new product idea from copycat competitors. Their only advantage is to saturate available categories of buyers and retailers as quickly as possible.
Small businesses are nimble.
In larger companies, new product development may take two to five years before a new product is rolled out nationally. In smaller companies where managers may be closer to their customers, buyers, and suppliers, and where endless meetings are not required in order to get approval of new ideas, faster development and testing of new product ideas may occur. It is not unusual for smaller companies to develop a prototype new product and introduce it nationally within six to 12 months. Smaller companies often let the real marketplace do the development and refinement of new products. For example, in the food business, small companies may take prototype samples to a few key wholesale customers for initial evaluation and comments.