The short simple answer for me is
to brainstorm about 100 ideas, pick the best one you're most passionate about,
get your awesome team together and keep executing. As we know however, things
can get a bit more complicated out there. In business like anywhere else, the
trick is to make sure you spend enough time picking a great answer, but not
mentally masturbating when you could have been taking action. The bullet points
are a short list of things I think you should consider when starting a business
or looking for ideas to play with. I think each bullet point in this article
can have an endless essay written on it, however I don't wanna make this too
long of a read. Of course as time goes on you'll find some of your views
getting more refined and others flippy flopping, so read on for my long and
drawn out opinionating. ; )
-Is your idea realistic?
A
realistic idea has multiple factors and can be the difference between making or
breaking it. I think the best ideas are the ones that are ahead of their time,
but not too far off. For example, trying to implement an idea that may be
possible in 3-5 years. For instance implementing solar powered laptop batteries would be a lot easier than creating a flying car (although I have heard about the car). The more
innovative the less realistic I'd say so don't try to create another a planet.
For starters I take the view that you get better as you go along, that’s why my
first ideas were real basic selling B2C online through Amazon. I also take the
view that an "idea" is just that, so having it fail doesn't really
matter as long as you're in a profitable market and can pivot the right way. If you stick to your day job and have a side income and traction, then all should be well.
-Do you know how to make/implement it?
Do you know how to create the idea?
Horribly me and my co-founder aren't devs only our 3rd member is, so
to launch we've been having to lean a lot on our CTO. The problem is our CTO is
still in school at the moment so as a result production has decreased. (Who saw
that one coming?) Now we are learning how to create the software plus searching
for an extra possible developer, which isn't making things go super smooth, but
still fun enough to push forward. Luckily, our first software iteration is very
basic so learning how to code the product isn't out of the question. If I could go
back in time I'd tell myself to start learning how to code or implement the idea
early, but then again no one can see the future. If you're in a start up then knowing how to code can easily help with communication to programmers. If you can't implement the idea then you may find yourself going through a pot hole like me.
-Do you know a viable partner(s) that can work on the idea with you? and team up with?
This might not seem like such an
important factor for some at first, however having the right co-founders can make a
world of difference. If multiple people
are passionate about a concept then it can multiply the amount of work done. We all know having the right person on board can push you to new heights and literally
quintuple results, the wrong person can create the exact opposite factors of
course. I think the most important factor is passion and trust in a co-founder,
the learning curve in a start up and business in general is always steep, but
if you have the passion and trust you can succeed. Trust will help you cut the
crap and speed things up, plus when you get in fights you'll push through
them. Passion or as I like to call it effort is of course immensely important.
With the right amount of passion the answer to the next question should be an
easy yes.
-Are you prepared to work 10 hours a day for the next 5
years on this? Can you make that sacrifice?
No matter what idea you have, it’s
a bad one if you don't have the passion yourself. All too often I've seen
deadlines get pushed back and lag behind because team members were careless. A
product without a passionate team behind it is easy to spot, since it's poorly
made. Passion of course doesn't mean you're crazy about what you're doing to
the point where you never want to pivot, but it means that you'll be in it for
the long haul and will put in the very long hours it takes to succeed. There is
a silent sacrifice that all start-up founders make when they begin…the dream is
to be free and control your life, however to get there it takes a hell of a lot
of work.
My mentor puts in 70 to 80 hours a
week and has been doing so for years on all the companies he has started and
sold. If the company is successful the average time spent working in a
start up is 5 years, which can wear you out. Do research on someone
like Bill Gates you'll hear about the body aching work he did, coding until he
fell asleep under his desk, or going home and passing out in bed without
changing clothes. Things will get very tough and family time has to be
scheduled, but every second you don't push into your start up is a chance for a
competitor to leap ahead. It's certainly a sacrifice being a founder, living with a rat cheap salary can be depressing if you don't love the idea or concept. Put some metrics on your goals and you'll see a direct correlation with
progress. There were and probably will be periods when you'll feel like its going nowhere, but as long as you keep moving forward I'm sure it'll be worth it.
-Do you know the market?
This is probably one of the factors
that gets least considered when the average person starts a business. The market is
always changing and "knowing" it takes a lot of time. I'd say it took
70 hours alone for me to have a competent amount of knowledge on all the big
players in my sphere. Knowing the market can save you a lot of time and being
an expert marketer can make you very powerful. Knowing how to market
by my definition entails all the business engineering as well. For instance you
should already have a clear picture of your micro-tested product.
For the n00bs: Micro-testing is
what determines if you have user interest or not and what gets you started on
your journey. It's pretty amazing at the amount of people I've spoke to who
have no traction, yet are off trying to raise money…they think by throwing more
money at the concept it'll gain more users…What are you gonna do pay your
customers to buy your product!? (Coincidentally this is how pay pal marketed
itself) While this may be a way to succeed depending on the product…I just
don't see how you should be accepted by investors if you can't put together a
minimum-viable-product or even 1 feature together. Before I jumped into my
current project we did a single feature application on the market, after those
tests were successful we can now move on to the next step. Each stage in my
company is itself a micro-test for feedback, the more positive return I get
the more I keep moving forward. Every stage in your company is in a sense a
micro-test, this mindset can make it much easier to pivot and succeed It'll help you look down before jumping out of the plane without a parachute.
As a great entrepreneur once said,
capitalism is opposite of competition. The more competition you have in a field
the harder it will obviously be to succeed, however competitors can be positive
too. For one having competition can let you know that a market already exists,
secondly you can see where they messed up and make sure you don't follow suit,
lastly if you are start up is competitive enough, it can make exiting or forming
alliances and doing deals with others a lot easier. I think there's nothing
wrong with competing, however having a patent-able idea is always best. (I love
business, but making money is good too). Patents make sure the idea is hard to
be replicated and if it is easy to replicate, then its probably not a good idea
to pursue it unless for micro-testing.
-Are you and your team specialized in this market?
If you have a passion in this area
then you should already be "specialized" in your market due to all
the related work you have done before hand. One of my friends is very
passionate about his engineering company and its clear how huge an advantage he
has. No one likes engineering and ping pong as much as this guy. His passion in
the field makes his product very hard to duplicate, it would take you at least
a 100,000 dollars to hire all the engineers and computer scientists you need to
figure out his tracking mechanisms to figure out the advanced math and his product,
not to mention marketing costs etc. If you've been in the field before, or
around it as a child it'll give you a big boost over anyone who decides to
compete, not to mention more importantly you'll know that you won't quit so
easy.
-Can you market the idea?
Being able to market the idea entails a lot of components in
itself. From the logo, to user interface and design, the distribution strategy,
to channel integration this one is endless. The name alone will tell your
customers if they should use the product or make fun of you. Naming the company and logo designs like I said deserves an article on itself, but to make it short simplicity is best.
Do you know how to scale the idea
so that you're making money in all stages of the company? A simple example
might be your micro-tested version has an ad attached to it. Making a couple of
thousand off the previous advertisements you now have enough money and users to
impress a vendor who you plan to do a deal with. Once the deal is made you
start gaining users from your next version and your next stage is working on a
deal integrating all vendors (you should keep planning these stages a couple
years out). I think that proper integration in a company's stages is WAY
underrated. Bill Gates didn't create Microsoft, until the deal with IBM went
through, as a result the company had money from day one. This question would
also be linked to your team members, if one gets sick can the rest pick up the
slack?
-Would you use it yourself?
This is one of my favorite
questions to ask because if the answers yes you know the person is on to
something. Why? Because even if the idea fails then at least you have 1 user at
the end of the day ; ) Also if you would use the product yourself then getting
in the mind of your core user base becomes much easier and so does innovating.
Lastly if you have a deep urge to use this product, then creating it becomes a lot
more enjoyable and fulfilling.
-How long does it take to implement?
I personally think that the speed
of implementing an idea is just as important as the idea itself. Can you hold
out 5 years on an idea? Or are you the type of person that likes to see things
happen now and can only wait 1 month? I think that ideas which are fast to
implement hold highest value because they are naturally easier to test for results. I've personally noticed the best businesses take no longer than about a year to launch an minimal viable product. It
all depends on you of course, but personally I can't sit and wait on hashing
out an idea and my friends are just as impatient.
-I'd like to address the wastrels out there
A caveat to asking any question or reading
articles is to make sure you filter everything. There are so many "business
consultants" out there it makes me sick sometimes. I'm 21 and its sad to
me when I know as much or even more about business then they do, yet they
charge exorbitant fees for their "consultations" or "coaching
sessions". Some of these "small business experts" are very good
at stealing money because as I like to say no one gets in business to feel
small (no offense to any competent people out there you shysters know who you
are). I have to say there are useful
consultants, however these guys have started and sold successful companies
before and know what they're doing. When I first got on the market everyone
from random people interrupting conversations on the street to literally my mom
had an opinion on how things should be run. It's always fun and sometimes
useful to entertain random thoughts, but there are only a handful of people
whose opinion I seriously consider about my next move. The hard truth is at the end of the day YOU
need to be the sole decision maker, otherwise you might as well let the other
person run the company.
-The secrets
As many greats will tell you there
is a plethora of information to master in this game, but that’s one of the
reasons you got into it didn't you? The challenge is endlessly amazing. The
business owner is an independent thinker and therefore reading will only get
you so far. Testing for traction on your ideas and strategizing is what has
given me the best results so far and continues to do so. I feel that starting a
new company helps us uncover the secrets of value creation for mankind,
hopefully you know what they are or are prepared to search. I don't think
anyone besides family will tell you all the nitty gritty details and secret
sauces they implemented on their company or has the time to, so enjoy finding
your own out. : ) When creating a start up knowing the advantage you posses and
coming up with new ones is key to staying afloat.
-There will never be a perfect answer in an imperfect world
Getting the right opinion helps,
but MAKE SURE you know the credentials of the person that gives you advice. Given my credentials I'd say you should play around with my
theories at best, but not take them too seriously. (after all I haven't
succeeded, so there's no proof my theories are valid). What have I done you
ask? Here is my first companies cheap website: http://www.shoplletes.com/ I know its
crappy, but this was made a year and a half ago, it was my first "business"
and I didn't really know what I was doing.
You can look on the market and our first apps, after that previous
business concept, I started a second one. Technically I've had 3 ideas I've
been pursuing so far and we keep pivoting moving forward and making more money
or becoming more tangible. The site looks crappy because customers rarely if
ever check it out, plus my company structure and name has changed. We've been
"stealth" (which is something I frankly don't like), but we'll be
public in 3 months.
I'd like to end with the statement
that some of the advice I've given in the article is inherently wrong. I say
this not to confuse you as a reader, but point out that business is
always changing and you need to make your own judgments. Blockbuster was on
top, but then went bankrupt due to failing to innovate online and in store. Following your ideas will keep you ahead of the curve, but who knows what's to come? That’s
a question were all trying to answer. Thanks for the read : ) and feel free to comment.