First, we should define what is a ‘good SEO’.
Anyways, SEO generally improves over time. We have to admit that it is hard to get excellent results during the first year of existence of a website.
However, we are now at the age of real-time SEO and it is possible in some cases to obtain spectacular results within a few months.
As far as the most competitive key phrases are concerned, it all depends on the age of your website and the importance of the work done but young websites are clearly at a disadvantage compared to older websites.
Anyway, it will all depends mainly on the competition and how far ahead they are of the keywords you are targeting.