Ideas are a dime a dozen. I hear no shortage of them. No limit to how potentially big and ‘profitable’ they are. Although many of them are half-baked … and all in all not even that. Lots and lots of ideas … Basically with the Idea holder convinced that you would want to put in $50,000 or $500,000 or $5,000,000.
Above all it seems like a dream scenario for an investor, right?
The problem?
The ideas need to be thought through. They do not have any legs. Out of every 20 ideas, I estimate maybe one person has thought through whether it is a viable business idea.
Specifically, do us all a favor … firstly, model your business idea. Succeed first on paper, then start looking to build the next stage correspondingly.
However, the reality is that not every idea is a potentially successful business. Instead, Some of them could be successful businesses but all the requirements to turn them into success are not available or attainable. So the first thing to remember is why waste your time on those ideas?
For this reason, the time you put into thinking through your idea and selling idea is obviously an investment.! Important to realize that don’t waste it on an idea that simply doesn’t work. Rather work through that idea until it is as robust straightaway,, with the resources you have, surely because you start investing in getting it to work surprisingly.
What’s the one resource you almost certainly have? … Time!
So take the time to model our idea. Flesh it out. Use the business model canvas – fantastic technique! Pull up a spreadsheet and mock out what Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, and Year 5 look like in terms of revenue and cost. Nothing complicated … just revenue and cost. A realistic view. Does the idea have legs?
If it doesn’t, stop talking about it. Move on to another idea, and certainly don’t start telling me about it.
