Hatching a New Business Idea
© David Newton
9/3/08
There you sit – you’re on a lunch break talking with a friend as a new business idea dawns on you.
Scrambling to locate your pen, you hastily jot down the ideas as they rush into your brain. You can’t seem to stop it, but there you go, as active as ever, you’re a flurry with enthusiasm about all the new possibilities and dimensions of how your business might look like.
You go back to your desk job and there again, your mind takes you over – as if possessed you can’t seem to stop “working on your new business” a supervisor at your job walks by and asks why you are so slow to do your work, did you get some news during your lunch break they ask? Oh and by the way, please sort it out so you can get back to doing your job!
Blah! What job! … “Do I want to work here like this another year?” you say to yourself. No, I’ve left the building already.
On your way home you check your mail and there it is more bills bills and bills. Suddenly your job looks okay again. But you feel quietly frustrated by a sense of entrapment. Lunch time when you had a brain wave now seems so far away. What do you do?
Taking Your Idea to Fruition
You see, many people get great ideas only to sink back into the world of work. Later they discover there idea wasn’t such a bad one after all and see another business sort of resembling just what they were only dreaming of, then feel disheartened they didn’t take a chance on it when the going was good.
How do you “qualify” your idea?
By a series of questions you could qualify and quantify the value of your idea – and develop it further.
1. Is your business idea service or product based?
2. Is there anyone else serving the same market for your idea currently in any way shape or form?
3. If so, what are they doing and can you make a list of those businesses?
4. Do you know much about who your potential market is?
5. Can you see if there are any needs / wants they have and what other suppliers are servicing that “market segment”?
6. Could your idea be tested to see if it has “legs” in the real world?
NB Can you do a Google search on how many times keywords related to your idea / market segment are searching for solutions to the idea you are looking into?
7. Can you do a flow diagram of how you would service and sell to this market and estimate how much it would cost to deliver your product or service?
8. Can you write up the “hot buttons” or words that would trigger your potential prospects to buy your new product?
9. Can you write up an advertisement for your product or service?
10. Are there any business people you know who could review (good or bad) the potential of your idea while still being supportive to you in the process? (As in they are Possibility Thinkers)
Can your ideas pass the $ Test?
Often I look at a new idea and see if there are any real dollars behind all the dreams. At some stage you’ll need to do this anyway, why not sooner?
Create and excel spreadsheet and try to imagine doing a day or a week or maybe a months sales of your new product “X”. You’ll need to look at your cost inputs and your outputs, plus what sales targets you’ll need to run a business that pays you an income.
It will ‘force’ you to do research such as suppliers and distribution points etc
What are the rents to run your business? Do you need a serviced office or extra room in your home?
Are there any ‘lead times’ with setting up your business or delivering your product or service?
Can you start by finding out what the costs are?
If so, you’ll be well on the road to beginning a business.
Business Capital
In a lot of cases, most businesses fail to get off the ground due to “overfunding” more than being underfunded. A new business owner who is “green behind the ears” will often waste money on all the things that make them look successful rather than focus on the most important part of the business which is what?
Your ability to sell and market your service or product.
In fact a lack of funds will drive you to be more effective in developing a market for your products than anything else. Most of the highly successful business owners that later became movers and shakers began with very little, but they learned that being good at sales and marketing was the way out of a humble start.