It Starts With an Idea!

A successful business always starts with an idea.  Too often, however, that is where most businesses end.  We have all thought up amazing ideas, and some not so amazing ideas but often it never really moves on from there.  Sometimes we may move a little further in the process of developing the idea but we hit a roadblock and the idea fades into obscurity.  It is very clear to me that the people who have been successful in business are not necessarily those that have the most brilliant ideas, but those who are persistent in developing their idea into a reality.

This realization came to me during one of my early successes in the business arena.  We were given an idea from something that a friend of ours was doing.  The idea involved buying a product at one retail outlet then slitting the product into pieces and then selling those pieces for a profit.  While these products were doing well we both made a good profit, but as the prices faded our friend dropped out of this business, while we had been developing ideas, increasing the channels we sold on, and expanding our product line. In the end, we ended up with a very successful business that we sold for a good profit that is still paying off. Many good ideas are out there, but we need to find a way to move them beyond the idea stage to make the idea come to light.

The first step to making a business idea make progress is to write it down.  Taking this simple step puts you one step ahead of the millions of other people with a business idea.  Writing things down solidifies the concept, and makes you consider the details.  It gives you a clear starting point that you can work from so that if it really does end up being a great idea it can be made into a reality.

If you like me you will come up with many more ideas than you could possibly ever do.  I like to keep all of my ideas in a nice leather-bound notebook.  There is just something about putting a pen to paper that opens the mind and allows ideas to flow. A few that I like to use are listed on my Sugoi Photo page on Amazon.

Once I have a strong outline of the business idea I take the first step in executing. Taking a queue from Getting Things Done I write down the next tangible action to make the business plan a reality.  Maybe it is that I need to run the idea by a friend, or research possible suppliers, or register a domain name, whatever it is I write it down. If I have time to do the action then I may do it right then, but often I will put it off a bit and come back to it later.  The key to making it work is that whenever I complete an action I think about it and write down what the next action is to move the idea forward.

By writing down and considering the next actions on an idea we have done the most critical step in moving our ideas forward. I understand that not all of our ideas are worth spending a lot of time on, but almost all of them are worth taking the time to write them down.  Great ideas often are developed from good ideas, and good ideas often come from bad ideas.  All of our ideas may bring bits and pieces that in the right combination can be not only the next bread idea but the next great business.