Yoav VilnerIdeas are not few and hard to come by. Everyone has ideas, whether you write them down in your journal, you tell them to a friend, or it’s just a brief thought while you’re taking your morning shower. However, not everybody acts on them, and even less people can make money off of them.
Take Massimo and Joe for instance, two friends living in Miami that had the simple idea and passion for Italian products. With some serious time and effort, they were able to evolve this simple idea into their very own business – ITLY. Here’s a quick overview that can help you, too, turn your simple ideas and dreams into a business reality.
Pursue Your Idea
Every great business venture, begins as a simple idea. Break down your major ‘selling points’ to your idea and begin visualizing your idea as a business. And finally, act on it!
Now is as good a time as ever, if you don’t act on it now you will surely regret it in the future when you see someone else getting credit for your idea (I totally thought of the idea for Waze a year before it came out). Ask yourself if the idea you have solves a problem, and if this problem you’re solving is relevant to your life. The most successful businesses are one’s where people are passionate about change they’re implementing.
Test Your Idea
You are biased in thinking that your idea is the answer to all of the world’s problems. Don’t test with your friends or family either, the people who will really weather the test of time are the people who will ideally reach into their pocketbooks. So take your idea to the streets (the theoretical online streets that is) test the waters in relevant online forums, and groups to see if there’s a desire and need for your business in relevant communities. Run tests like these every so often to get a good idea of the bigger picture and test different markets.
Brand Your Idea
Your idea is a vision for how your business will eventually change the future. The voice of your brand will essentially make or break your business. Create a brand that your customers can really resonate with and relate to, and they’ll continue to make positive associations. The Good Greens campaign does a great job of this by branding itself as part of a niche market for vegans and reaching out to food bloggers.
Start Small with your Idea
Take the time to learn about your product, see how it looks in retail, and determine changes you could make in the marketing realm. If you start small and remain close with your small niche of customers it’s easy to make little changes along the way. With your small idea it doesn’t take a lot of money and resources to start your business. Vijaya Pastala had the simple idea that she wanted to sell honey, she began selling locally in her hometown of Bangalore India and she now has a business, Under The Mango Tree, that sells honey worldwide.
By starting small with your idea you won’t end up with a garage full of products you won’t be able to sell. Play it by ear, win the local audience first, then you can think about growing and grabbing a more national and international crowd.
Never Give up on your Idea
If at first, you don’t succeed keep trying! Keep your idea simple throughout the entire process and never stop trying. Waze didn’t come to be the most comprehensive GPS system overnight. Be patient with your idea and believe in yourself that you to are capable of building a business from the ideas inside your head. Remember, everything has a life cycle, every once in awhile you may have to tweak your idea to keep it up to date and relevant rolling with the times.
Do you have a burning idea that you’ve been dying to get out there? Have you tried turning it into a business in the past? Remember there’s no time like now
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