[WORKOUT PLAN] Ideas are like muscles.
There are a lot of ideas floating around here. As I analyze them, I've noticed that on their merits a lot of them are pretty good. I just thought I'd brainfart about my experience in "ideating." Most of my "good ideas" - or ideas that have made me a profit came about two ways a) I was having a problem that pissed me off, then created a solution for myself, while selling my solution to other pissed off people or b) connecting things that are seemingly "not connectable."
Connect the Dots
In a prior vocation I spent a lot of time learning about the restaurant business. Then as a consultant for a tech start-up, community group fundraising became an intense area of interest. I connected these two seemingly un-connected / unrelated things and created a solution. To me, it was a no brainer to sell restaurant take-out / delivery food in support of local school fundraisers on Monday through Wednesday because everyone feeds their kids, most restaurants are desperate for business on those days, many already participate or are aware of school fundraisers, and no one likes buying the candy and things that are sent home by schools for fundraisers. I grossly mis-calculated the lead time. One has a better chance at getting a tax hike through a republican congress than to get an up or down vote from a PTA in less than 6 months. I thought the challenge would have been marketing to restaurants. Nope. It was PTA's.
Solve Your Problems
Equally good ideas come from your trying to find a solution to a problem you are / were having, and there not being one. AirBNB, Hipmunk, and TaskRabbit were formed this way. However, these can work for off-liners as well.
What problems are you having right now? What problems have you had? Can you solve them for yourself, and is there a big enough market of people experiencing the same pain you are experiencing for you to make it a business? The WSO market is emblematic of this. The irony in the WSO market is that it's a marketplace for ideas - ideas that most of us have said; "crap, I should have thought of that!?" WSO's are intended to solve the problem of folks' inability to come up with their own ideas. I buy WSO's like hotcakes (off line stuff). I'll never implement any of them. I have found a bunch of random things I have found to be useful. For instance; the "sample video" for the Video Smackdown WSO was absolutely terrible. I was mortified. However, I took the 1% I found valuable and will be applying that logic to my business soon. I'll be able to lower the price of my videos (expand the market) without sacrificing for, or compromising on product quality.
You can be wildly successful applying the ideas of others... I like Cringers, and John Durhams latest threads regarding businesses you can get up and running with today. John Durhams Import/Export model is a bonafide opportunity. However, the guys who will do exceedingly well with it, will see something John doesn't even see, stumble into a problem, solve their problem, connect some dots, then bam! They'll be selling WSO's "how I made $769,334 in 6 months on Alibaba."
When an idea is YOUR OWN, you will approach it with that much more passion, and that much more vigor. You're going to make that 300th call on Monday from an idea you generated vs. quitting after 30 calls based on someone else's idea. When an idea is your own, you're going to stick with it longer.
Connect the Dots
In a prior vocation I spent a lot of time learning about the restaurant business. Then as a consultant for a tech start-up, community group fundraising became an intense area of interest. I connected these two seemingly un-connected / unrelated things and created a solution. To me, it was a no brainer to sell restaurant take-out / delivery food in support of local school fundraisers on Monday through Wednesday because everyone feeds their kids, most restaurants are desperate for business on those days, many already participate or are aware of school fundraisers, and no one likes buying the candy and things that are sent home by schools for fundraisers. I grossly mis-calculated the lead time. One has a better chance at getting a tax hike through a republican congress than to get an up or down vote from a PTA in less than 6 months. I thought the challenge would have been marketing to restaurants. Nope. It was PTA's.
Solve Your Problems
Equally good ideas come from your trying to find a solution to a problem you are / were having, and there not being one. AirBNB, Hipmunk, and TaskRabbit were formed this way. However, these can work for off-liners as well.
What problems are you having right now? What problems have you had? Can you solve them for yourself, and is there a big enough market of people experiencing the same pain you are experiencing for you to make it a business? The WSO market is emblematic of this. The irony in the WSO market is that it's a marketplace for ideas - ideas that most of us have said; "crap, I should have thought of that!?" WSO's are intended to solve the problem of folks' inability to come up with their own ideas. I buy WSO's like hotcakes (off line stuff). I'll never implement any of them. I have found a bunch of random things I have found to be useful. For instance; the "sample video" for the Video Smackdown WSO was absolutely terrible. I was mortified. However, I took the 1% I found valuable and will be applying that logic to my business soon. I'll be able to lower the price of my videos (expand the market) without sacrificing for, or compromising on product quality.
You can be wildly successful applying the ideas of others... I like Cringers, and John Durhams latest threads regarding businesses you can get up and running with today. John Durhams Import/Export model is a bonafide opportunity. However, the guys who will do exceedingly well with it, will see something John doesn't even see, stumble into a problem, solve their problem, connect some dots, then bam! They'll be selling WSO's "how I made $769,334 in 6 months on Alibaba."
When an idea is YOUR OWN, you will approach it with that much more passion, and that much more vigor. You're going to make that 300th call on Monday from an idea you generated vs. quitting after 30 calls based on someone else's idea. When an idea is your own, you're going to stick with it longer.
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Tracy411 -
Thanks
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