As your small business consultant, I am often approached by individuals who have an idea for a company and want my thoughts on when it is recommended or not. I see that I give the individuals exactly the same advice almost regardless of what their idea is or who they are. In summary I tell them "I'm sure your idea is fine. The questions you need to be thinking about is how do you want to make your company successful and are you anyone to complete it?"
So, let's break up that little bit of advice into its component parts. You will find three: Your idea, your strategy, and you business ideas.
Your Idea
In a world seemingly busting at the seams with both good and bad ideas, so how exactly does yours rate? Many first-time entrepreneurs believe that finding the right idea is comparable to a search for the Holy Grail. It's not. My favorite example of the originates from the movie "Office Space" where the thought of the Pet Rock is discussed, "Sure it had been a good idea. The guy made a million dollars." Funny, perhaps, but probably not definately not the truth. Gary Dahl, the inventor of Pet Rocks, did generate income selling Pet Rocks and even sold the rights to Pet Rocks as recently as 2009. Arguably a terrible idea, Pet Rocks actually had plenty of quirky charm as the marketing around them was full of puns and play on words. And, it absolutely was this, not the sale of rocks at incredible markups, which netted Dahl his profits.
The idea is, ideas, in and of themselves, rarely have much value one way or another. It's extremely hard to express one is good while another is bad. Most of us have that friend who shouts from their couch at commercials that the merchandise is stupid, or that they thought of it years ago. What's the difference between them and the one who is making all that money selling those products and/or services? Effort.
So, when contemplating a company idea, simply consider if you are a fair and intelligent person who is capable of picking out a sound business idea. If the answer is "yes" then you definitely have what can be a successful business idea, regardless if it is an excellent or bad one.
Your Strategy
Next can be your strategy. Strategy is a funny word in the context of business as it essentially gets boiled down to having a sound approach. Lots of meaningless terms get used and misused on the planet of business strategy. Our favorite example is "first mover advantage." The truth is, "the first mover advantage" is often the "first mover disadvantage" as you'll hit every roadblock along the way and others get to master from your mistakes. Don't let little truisms and phrases be the foundations of your strategy.
Consider, now that you've a concept, how are you going to actually allow it to be a company? The most frequent misconception here's that strategies that you have seen deployed at a preexisting business may have any bearing upon your brand-new business idea. There's a big difference between what's commonly called Corporate Strategy (which is what most any business that has existed for significantly more than 2-3 years use) and New Venture Strategy (which is everything you and your business idea will have to use to get started).
The brand new venture strategy you employ is paramount to the success of your idea. Far more than the idea itself. But, don't expect most people to understand how to play the brand new venture strategy game. It is unique and subtle, but could be mastered by really thinking deeply about the way you are likely to get your idea facing the folks who might buy it. "Market Acquisition" (admittedly, another overused and often misused strategy word) would be the most crucial part of everything you do to make your idea an effective business. At the time of day one, nobody knows who you're or everything you do. How do you plan to improve that, in this dramatic way that you can easily make a company from the jawhorse?
Make sure to run your ideas by lots of people and gain just as much feedback as you possibly can. If you know an effective entrepreneur, definitely manage to get thier thoughts as they'll be invaluable. That is also a wonderful time to understand one of the main rules of running any business, no matter size, which is to make sure you're not just asking those who confirm what you may say just to cause you to happy. Critique and refining of your plan will be the keys to achieving this part right.
So, let's break up that little bit of advice into its component parts. You will find three: Your idea, your strategy, and you business ideas.
Your Idea
In a world seemingly busting at the seams with both good and bad ideas, so how exactly does yours rate? Many first-time entrepreneurs believe that finding the right idea is comparable to a search for the Holy Grail. It's not. My favorite example of the originates from the movie "Office Space" where the thought of the Pet Rock is discussed, "Sure it had been a good idea. The guy made a million dollars." Funny, perhaps, but probably not definately not the truth. Gary Dahl, the inventor of Pet Rocks, did generate income selling Pet Rocks and even sold the rights to Pet Rocks as recently as 2009. Arguably a terrible idea, Pet Rocks actually had plenty of quirky charm as the marketing around them was full of puns and play on words. And, it absolutely was this, not the sale of rocks at incredible markups, which netted Dahl his profits.
The idea is, ideas, in and of themselves, rarely have much value one way or another. It's extremely hard to express one is good while another is bad. Most of us have that friend who shouts from their couch at commercials that the merchandise is stupid, or that they thought of it years ago. What's the difference between them and the one who is making all that money selling those products and/or services? Effort.
So, when contemplating a company idea, simply consider if you are a fair and intelligent person who is capable of picking out a sound business idea. If the answer is "yes" then you definitely have what can be a successful business idea, regardless if it is an excellent or bad one.
Your Strategy
Next can be your strategy. Strategy is a funny word in the context of business as it essentially gets boiled down to having a sound approach. Lots of meaningless terms get used and misused on the planet of business strategy. Our favorite example is "first mover advantage." The truth is, "the first mover advantage" is often the "first mover disadvantage" as you'll hit every roadblock along the way and others get to master from your mistakes. Don't let little truisms and phrases be the foundations of your strategy.
Consider, now that you've a concept, how are you going to actually allow it to be a company? The most frequent misconception here's that strategies that you have seen deployed at a preexisting business may have any bearing upon your brand-new business idea. There's a big difference between what's commonly called Corporate Strategy (which is what most any business that has existed for significantly more than 2-3 years use) and New Venture Strategy (which is everything you and your business idea will have to use to get started).
The brand new venture strategy you employ is paramount to the success of your idea. Far more than the idea itself. But, don't expect most people to understand how to play the brand new venture strategy game. It is unique and subtle, but could be mastered by really thinking deeply about the way you are likely to get your idea facing the folks who might buy it. "Market Acquisition" (admittedly, another overused and often misused strategy word) would be the most crucial part of everything you do to make your idea an effective business. At the time of day one, nobody knows who you're or everything you do. How do you plan to improve that, in this dramatic way that you can easily make a company from the jawhorse?
Make sure to run your ideas by lots of people and gain just as much feedback as you possibly can. If you know an effective entrepreneur, definitely manage to get thier thoughts as they'll be invaluable. That is also a wonderful time to understand one of the main rules of running any business, no matter size, which is to make sure you're not just asking those who confirm what you may say just to cause you to happy. Critique and refining of your plan will be the keys to achieving this part right.
