The Tipping Point

When you're working hard at your business and nothing seems to be happening, you need to know the concept of "tipping point." It's s fitting term now that we're talking about "viral" websites and clients "invading" our practices. It may not be time to give up.

"Tipping point" is a concept that comes from the epidemic theory. The tipping point is the point at which an ordinary and stable phenomenon--a low-level flu outbreak, for instance--can turn into a public-health crisis, because of the number of people who are infected who can infect others. In reading that, you can see that, in layman's terms, there's about to be an explosion. An exponential one. Bad news for public health; good news for businesses.

This used to be called "critical mass" when I was working in the non-profit sector. We would work for months trying to accrue membership, or start a new sector, and see nothing happening. One member ... another new member ... It's also the "overnight effect" because suddenly one day you've reached the critical mass, and members are joining in droves and you're into momentum. The thing takes on a life of its own. This, incidentally, plagues marketing people in terms of cause and effect, because outsiders will tend to claim one single 'thing' which caused the results, when you know it was the months of dogged day-by-day work that built to ... the tipping point! We also know it's the cumulative effect of all the smaller things we do.

An exterior source of encouragement and support is good during the times of building when 'nothing seems to be happening', especially if you're going through the cycle the first time. Many entrepreneurs give up just when they were about to make it.