I’ve decided to actually go out and buy a domain name to create a website consolidating all my various interests.
Come visit at:
Hope to see you there!
June 29, 2008
June 17, 2008
From Dreams to Reality
So you’ve got this great idea and have been thinking about it for a while. You’ve finally decided that the idea is so good you want to create a new business from it, so what do you need to do now?
There are quite a lot of steps involved in making that dream a reality so lets have a look at a few:
Flesh out your idea
Try to think of every aspect of your idea, starting with essentials like “Where will I get my supplies?” through to “What makes my idea stand out from the crowd?”. Its usually a good idea to make a list of these questions and answer as fully as possible. This can help define the structure of your idea and will give rise to further questions to help understand your prospective business.
Research competition
There are usually several people already doing something similar to your idea and if not you have to question why. Having already established practitioners of your idea proves that the basis of the idea works, but having no other implemetations of your idea means a lot of extra work and bigger risk for you. When looking into competitors, try to discover the details that make them successful by using their product or service yourself, asking peoples opinions, analysing the location and generally gaining as much information about them as possible. You may notice areas you believe you could improve upon or perhaps realise that your own idea needs revising in order to compete effectively.
Find your competitive edge
In relation to the points above, one of the most important things to do is to clearly define what makes your idea better than all the others out there. This will involve some of the research described above in order to compare and contrast your idea. When you know your edge over competitors you can focus upon it when building and advertising your business to make it obvious to consumers the benefits of using your product/service over everyone elses. If you don’t stand out then people have no reason to choose you over anyone else.
Gather opinions
Now that you’ve researched your idea and your competitors fully it is time to get other peoples opinions of your idea. It’s best to have a brief description of your idea to explain it to people in short and then if they seem interested you can expand your overview. Just go and tell everyone you know about it and judge their reactions, constantly talk about it and gather all the feedback you can as it might improve your idea. People love giving their opinions so you should take advantage.
Work out the costs
One of the most difficult parts of any idea development is defining the cost of starting up. Try to think of every aspect that will go into turning your idea into a business, from the cost of renting premises right down to paper and pens for research. Try to split your overall costs into 3 estimates, below average, average and above average giving a difference of about 25% in each so you can work with a broad range of possiblities.
Get some help
Don’t be afraid to ask for help from friends and family, they will often be willing to help you get started and will not cost you much. Also learn to realise when you just don’t have enough knowledge or expertise for a particular task and need to bring someone in for it. If hiring professionals ensure you update your costs accordingly. No one knows everything there is to know about business so don’t worry if you need help!
