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!

 

 

 

Bigger isnt always better

When it comes to starting a new business, bigger isnt always better.  With a smaller business it becomes easier to test the water with your idea due mainly to lower costs.  Lower startup costs mean less overall risk which takes a bit of pressure off in the early days of raising finance and allows you to focus more on other aspects.  There is a lot to be said for having a small business which is a specialist in one or two particular areas as opposed to a large, cover all type affair.  Being the jack of all trades may suit some business models but others thrive from being the master of their particular niche.

Lets take a new restaurant as an example of this.  On initial planning you may believe it is preferable to have a large location with plenty of kitchen space, lots of covers and a diverse menu in order to maximise profit.  This makes sense as the more people you can provide food for the more money you will make.  The downside to this approach (although i’m sure there are many) is your business model, your idea, is not tested until the day you open your massive doors.  What happens then when you don’t fill up this large space regularly?  You end up with a massive debt (from startup and running costs) and eventually have to close, leaving a financial mess which could take years to fix and potentially put you off entering the business world again.  Sure, you can do market research (always recommended) but you’ll never truly know until you open the doors whether or not it will be a success.

The alternative approach is to rent a very small location, only a handful of covers and a small, specialised menu with which every dish is your speciality.  This way you are testing out your idea with a lot less risk and avoiding potential financial disasters.  If the business is not a success in this case, you can usually walk away with only a small debt and your time lost.  If you are successful using this approach then you can look for larger premises knowing that you will be able to fill the space.  You will also have a good idea of how to outfit and open such a place having already done it once before.

Of course, some business ideas would not suit this approach but I think it is worth considering starting out small versus big whenever a new idea springs to mind.