Make your ideas become a reality
I, as many of you I’m sure, am constantly hit by numerous ideas all the time. For me, I would say I get a good 5 ideas a day. Some ideas are mediocre and some ideas are great. No matter what the idea is, it can become better than what it started out as if you actually work on it.
Anyone can come up with a great idea. I hear people all the time say they have an idea for this or an idea for that. An idea is nothing if it isn’t acted upon. If you don’t take the challenge of making something out of nothing, then you will never stand out from the crowd.
Start by sitting down and really thinking about what your idea is. Is it really something people can use and/or enjoy? If so, do some research (a simple google search should suffice) to see if anyone else is offering a similar product or service. Found competition? Don’t get discouraged, this is actually a GOOD SIGN! It means there are people out in the world who need or want what you have in mind. Many people make the mistake of seeing competition as a road block, THIS IS NOT THE CASE! Competition is healthy and will actually bring you customers because everyone likes to “shop around”.
Next, research your competition and ask yourself if you can offer a product that improves on what your competitors have to offer. Don’t get discouraged by big companies or corporations! Before google became the default search engine of choice everyone thought Yahoo! was untouchable. Same with a little company called Panic, they offered a better Apple/Mac solution to website creation (called coda) than the huge corporation Adobe/Macromedia had to offer (DreamWeaver) and benefited hugely in their niche market. I could keep going but you get the point. If you have a better product or service to offer, don’t be intimidated by bigger companies or corporations.
If you decided that what you have to offer is indeed superior to what competitors have to offer, then congratulations and move on to the hard part… Making it happen! You need to find the best way to create the product or service you have to offer and this typically adds up to the following universal calculation: Most affordable means + best quality available + quickest possible way. So from making a commercial website to making branded soap that calculation will yield the most profit. This of course requires some explanation.
When your able to deliver the best quality, in the quickest way, at the most affordable prices your bound to profit. So let’s say as in the previous two examples that you make soap yourself in your basement. Labor is cheap because it’s probably only you and it’s probably high quality because your doing it yourself. But is it the quickest way? At first you might say yes, but that may not be the case. Are you going to be responsible for the marketing/PR of the soap, the laborer making the soap, the delivery boy/girl of the soap, and the salesman/saleswoman of the soap? You could be at first, but you won’t last for long if you want to grow. So it might be best to hire additional help and in the long run benefit from added profit because you have more time to sell the soap than running around being a one-person show. Delegation is key!
Your idea requires a lot of money to get off the ground? There’s tons of money out there from government business loans to angel investors. This is another google search you might have to do to see what is the best solution for you. Draft up a business plan and present it to numerous venture capitalists, banks, etc. and your bound to get some green lights. Worse case scenario you can get useful information on why they decided NOT to fund you and improve the lagging areas of your idea.
Now you can’t tackle every idea you have in mind because you won’t have time to complete them. Prioritize yourself and make sure you know what you’re getting into. Making something out of nothing isn’t easy but it’s very gratifying when successful. Have a success story or an idea you want to get out? Post a comment below or email us!
Filed by tony at August 3rd, 2007 under Self-Improvement, Tips
