I have an absolutely amazing idea! We’ve all said this to ourselves at some point, or heard it from a friend with a sparkle in their eye, tugging at their hair and gazing up at the sky.
Four simple steps before you rush off to the patent and trademark office to register it.
• Bring your idea down to earth
• The validation phase: is this actually any use?
• Brainstorming
• I’m going to do some market research: yes, yes, all that business of doing surveys
This first stage of your career as an entrepreneur is when you’ve been turning one or more ideas over in your head for a while. Whether it’s because you’re an observant, restless person, because of what you’ve learnt working at different companies, or because one day the light bulb suddenly goes on, an idea gets stuck in your head.
And you ask yourself…
How on earth has nobody thought of this before?
This could be massive; if I launch it, I’ll make a fortune…
Well, don’t get carried away, because thinking is free and there are several million heads thinking all over the world, so let’s bring the idea down to earth. Before that, though, search thoroughly on the web, on search engines and especially on idea websites such as http://www.ideas4all.com, where you can see other ideas, get inspired, share them and see whether they make an impact or spark interest.
Bring your idea down to earth
It’s not just me saying it; the gurus and private investors say it too: ideas are worth practically nothing. What counts is putting them into action, their execution.
Ideas inside your head have no value, so get them out and put them on paper, make a diagram, a drawing, and develop them as far as you can. Give it shape and, if it’s a product or service, even give it a working name.
Once you have the idea well defined, you can start sounding it out in your closest, most trusted circles, in other words family and friends. Ask them to be honest with you and tell you the pros and cons. It’ll help you keep shaping the idea, improving it, correcting it if necessary, or dropping it altogether if it’s something that already exists or is impossible or very costly to get off the ground.
If your idea isn’t amazing, or it’s something that has been done to death, don’t give up: keep researching, keep turning things over in your head. Keep observing life in general, everyday problems, ones you come across at work, problems other people tell you about…
For your idea to be feasible, interesting and worth developing, think of something that…
• The market really needs
• Solves a common problem affecting a good number of people
• Is a significant improvement on what currently exists
• Is faster, more convenient, more efficient or simpler than what we have today
• Won’t take you a lifetime or years of research to get off the ground…
• May exist, but not in your home country, so you can import the idea and adapt it to your market
• Is truly original, eye-catching, something people want to consume or use even if it isn’t a basic necessity (a game, an original design for an existing product, a different gadget…)
The validation phase
To validate your idea, you have several options:
• Consult an expert in the sector, the sector in which you want to develop your new business idea (travel, the internet, finance, retail…). This person will undoubtedly give you the best feedback
• Pitch your new idea to as many people as you consider to be your target audience, so they can give you their opinion and the pros and cons they see in your idea.
• Find out as much as you can about the subject: research it, read, follow experts by reading their blogs or their Twitter
• As I mentioned before, search the internet thoroughly for identical or similar ideas.
• Make use of your network of contacts to consult them. You can do this through social networks such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, for example. You can even design a survey with Google’s forms tool.
• Do a proper survey using a free tool such as http://www.encuestafacil.com
• The acid test: going head to head with other entrepreneurs. Idea competitions held in your city, such as http://www.iweekend.org, or at your university, or those organised by various companies. Search the internet, because there are more and more initiatives of this kind, and many of them also offer cash prizes or give you resources so you can get your idea off the ground.
In other
posts I tell you how to run a good brainstorming session and a good survey.
Extracted from my latest book, ¡Quiero ser emprendedor! Manual práctico para TORPES, published by Anaya. (“I Want to Be an Entrepreneur! A Practical Manual for Dummies”)
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