We’ve all been there – lying awake at night or performing some monotonous task when the light bulb goes off! You’ve just had a great idea for your business. For the majority of us however, that business idea rarely becomes a reality because we don’t have the time or the money, or perhaps a detailed enough plan for how to integrate our idea into our existing business, or turn our idea into a new business.
I have spoken to businessman and entrepreneur Joe Cianciotto in the past about something that he referred to as the “ideas graveyard”. Basically, what he meant was that some of the world’s greatest ideas which never came to fruition because the person who had the idea wasn’t prepared to turn it into a reality, such a shame.
If you have a great business idea and want to avoid it heading to the graveyard then here are some tips which can help you take that idea to the market.
Funding
The first thing that most of us think about when we are putting ourselves off an idea is how on earth will we be able to fund it? The first thing to do here is to actually formalize a plan for roughly how much this business endeavor of yours will cost, you may be surprised that the costs are not as high as you thought.
Once you know how much money you are going to need you can decide how you will get the funds, you could bootstrap, seek out private investment, get a business loan from the bank, get a government or private grant or even join a capital advance scheme which focusses on start-ups, there are lots of ways in which you can get the cash.
Creating the Product
Before you really think too much at the business side of things, you will first need to create your product or service. Take your time with this step, do research around what it is that you are trying to create, come up with prototypes, test the product, test the market and then go through the whole process again until it is perfect.
You could have the greatest business mind in the world but if the product is not great, you will never be successful.
Finding Your Market
Marketing and advertising of your product is going to be essential once you go to market but first you need to understand the demographics of your target customers. You can use some simple market research in order to obtain this kind of information. Having this type of knowledge will help you out massively when it comes to working out your marketing strategy and also it can better help you to build the brand that will sell such products.
These first three steps will not create a multi-million dollar business for you but it will give you a solid foundation for you to take your product or service out to the world. Every great business started off with an acorn of an idea and there is no reason that yours cannot too.