??? ideas.... easy? hard? POSSIBLE!
Students can discover product ideas: If you are currently a student, you have an opportunity in front of you. For example, take Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook. In 2002, Zuckerberg graduated from High School. Facebook did not exist. Two years later at Harvard, the birth of Facemash led to Facebook, which today has over 500 million users and is valued at over $5 billion dollars. Facebook was a utility, in essence, to create ways to communicate on a global scale. Zuckerberg executed the idea with extreme focus, and this is why Facebook is the success it is today.
Unemployed can discover product ideas: If you are currently unemployed, you have an opportunity in front of you. Matt Morris, author of The Unemployed Millionaire, shares secrets how he went from broke and down and out to a millionaire twenty times over. You can do it, too. Just one product idea can motivate you to stop watching television and start launching your own business. What are you waiting for? Time is your biggest asset, and you have plenty of it right now. Use it wisely!
Employed people can find product ideas: If you are currently employed, you have an opportunity in front of you, too. While you may have less time in front of you to take action, you also probably have more financial resources at your disposal to outsource different tasks to people who can help accelerate the growth of your business. You also can hire a coach to help you stay on track and help you launch your product successfully.
In case you are thinking "How can I do that?" I will share a few ideas to help you get started.
First, here are three ways to come up with product ideas:
1. The "Why don't they...?" question:
"Why don't they have a _____?"
2. The I hate statement:
"I hate ______ (product). I wish these would do _______."
3. The I would LOVE Question:
"If only _____ did _____, I would love it!"
If you ever find yourself asking one of those questions or making one of those statements, you have a product or service idea in front of you. For example, in 2007, I was attending the San Jose Jazz Festival. While listening to the music, I turned to my girlfriend at the time and said, "Why don't we have one of these in our home town?" Thus, the idea for a music festival was born. I investigated, and no jazz festival had ever been held in my home town. I created a team, raised funding, and opened a non-profit corporation. We are now planning our first festival in September 2011! You will notice the idea started with the question phrase "Why don't we...?" Any time you hear or use that phrase, you might just be onto something.
Just last week, I decided I wanted a product for some of the work I do. However, when I tried to buy one at my local store, they had nothing like it. I went online and guess what? It didn't exist there, either. In fact, the existing products I COULD buy I don't even like. Considering this, I consider that product category RIPE for INNOVATION. Have you made such a discovery yourself? If you do, you are onto a product idea.
The product idea started with "I hate _____." I used that phrase to describe the product I currently use. I also used the phrase "I would love this ______ (product) if it looked like ______ (description of product) and was more comfortable. I want something better. Thus, I will create it. (Sorry, I cannot yet name the product as I'm still going through the branding/trademark/patent process to protect my idea.) I used both the "I hate _____" and "I wish my _____ did ______" to come up with this new idea.
Find a hole or niche in the market, then move to exploit it!
Once you have a product idea, you must do several things:
First, hire a patent attorney. Run a trademark search and patent search and see if there is anything like it you need to be concerned about. Consider all the possibilities of innovation with your product, then file the patent and trademarks to protect your idea.
Second, hire a business launch coach (hint, hint). You'd be surprised, but these guys have been there, done that, and know the difference between focus and scatter, hard work and luck, and success and failure. You want someone who can help you find your way through the crazy decisions facing you with focused effort. If you cannot figure that out yourself, then by all means hire a coach.
Third, write a short business plan. You need to work from a plan. Do you know what step comes next? A business plan will lay this out for you and bring clarity to required actions. If you need help with a simple plan, I have several tools I make available to clients when they hire me as coach that will help you get your plan started in HOURS rather than WEEKS. I love helping people save time. But whether you hire out help or write it yourself, get started, figure out what you need, and then get to it. Without a plan, you plan to fail, so write down an action plan.
Fourth, build a team. When you build a team, do not go crazy. Remember, you don't have money to pay anyone yet. Even if you do, why do that? Outsource, hire independent contractors, and use stock for the difference. The first person to bring on board after your business coach is either COO or CFO. You need someone to help run the company and someone to help manage the money. You may also need a marketing firm to help. I tend to find marketing experts who will work as independent contractors, so I would recommend that path, first, before hiring to bring that function in house.
As you can see, it is not rocket science to find product ideas and start your own business. But you must take ACTION. If you sit around and watch everyone else, you never do anything. Watch for when people say the triggers to product ideas, and pay attention if you catch your own voice saying "I wish we had.... ______." It just might be your next BIG IDEA.
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Copyright © 1999-2010 by ARRiiVE Business Solutions. All Rights Reserved. SUBSCRIBE. Like it? Share on del.icio.us or Stumble Upon!
Oct 7, 2010
How to Find Product Ideas
Aug 13, 2008
Simple Product Launch on Innovations In Business
ARRiiVE: Innovations In Business Show featured "A Simple Approach To Product Launch" today (Wednesday, August 13) at 2PM PST - 5PM EST! (Miss the show? Scroll down for the UPDATE and RECORDING OF THIS KICK-ASS SHOW!)
Visit http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/37798 to hear me discuss a simple approach to e-mail marketing today (2PM PST) or call 724-444-7444 enter 37798#1# to call in.
Got a big idea but not sure where to start?
Are you struggling with product launch? In this call you'll receive:
- Knowing product launch is more than a big idea...get sure about what else to do.
- Getting solutions to "analysis by paralysis"...get off the dime and get something productive started.
- Feeling like an amateur in a daunting world... get professional advice from a guy who learned from the school of hard knocks (well, and a few books, too).
Show hosted by Scott Andrews, CEO of ARRiiVE Business Solutions (www.ARRiiVE.com)
It's simple and easy to join - call (724) 444 -7444 enter 37798#1# to dial in or visit http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/37798 OR http://www.ARRiiVE.com (see radio show link) to visit online and/or text chat questions to Scott.
UPDATE:
MISS THE SHOW? Shame on you! Hee hee hee... okay, seriously, you're in luck: this call might be worth thousands to you. I've saved it and made it easy to listen to - just click the player here:
Aug 7, 2008
Be A Better Entrepreneur: The Savvy Entrepreneur Series, Part II
If you have an inkling of an idea, you might be considering becoming an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs have an interesting life, without a doubt. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you'll learn many skills you might not posses from the corporate world, for sure. And, thankfully, there are wise owls willing to share their experience with us. For my part, I'll share what I've learned with you, and point out several aspects of entrepreneurialism I discovered the old-fashioned way: from the school of hard knocks!
Keys To Becoming A Better Entrepreneur
1. Your "Big Idea" is just that. Somewhere between 5 and 500 other people in the world may have had the exact same light bulb moment you did. The only difference is who will ACT on their big idea.
2. Your "Big Idea" is just a beginning. Where do you go from here? How do you create a plan? What ways might you implement your strategy? Who will you hire? Where will you base your headquarters? Who should you hire to help? There are so many questions facing entrepreneurs - start to make a list of ways you think you might need help. Then seek out resources to help you in your journey.
3. Most companies do not fail because their idea stinks. Most companies fail because their execution stinks. What am I talking about? Well, for starters, how well are you managing your money? This is the #1 place businesses fail.
(# Months) Life of business = $ in bank - burn rate per month + new money in.
This is the bottom line. Yep, cash IS king! If you're able to get your ego out of the way, you might look at this first:
a. How much money are you bringing in versus how much money are you spending?
When you can answer that question and the money in is greater than the money out, you're getting somewhere!
What's the next biggest area of execution where people fail? They go it alone. It isn't easy to be an entrepreneur. It's even harder to do it by yourself. This is why my firm, ARRiiVE Business Solutions, has two "i" letters (and why they're emphasized) -- because you no longer have to feel you're launching your product by yourself. I help you and we're now a team! i and i is the Rastafarian way of saying "we" so why not "i" and "i" doing it together?! Anyway, decide what kind of help you want on your team: marketing, legal, financial, operational, managerial, sales, support, HR, etc., and go get it. Most companies need help with either marketing or operations. The positions I've hired or outsourced have been marketing 60%, operations 25% and legal and financial the remainder. Make sure, at the least, that you have a good attorney and a good accountant. Their advice is always handy.
b. Get good help. Most entrepreneurs have a difficult time getting past their ego. If you can't get beyond your own "I think I know the answer" problem most entrepreneurs suffer from, you won't ever lift a finger or write a check to get help from people who can and will help you. I'd start with your operations. Make sure you have a solid product or service to offer FIRST, then you'll have a solid way to make money.
c. While you're getting help, make sure your marketing is in order. Most entrepreneurs skimp on part of their marketing. Perhaps they think that saving money in this area is wise, but it is the wrong place to save (I'll say more on that in a bit) but no -- make sure you spend money where you need to in order to have solid marketing.
Critical Marketing Success Tactics
1. Get A Logo. Your logo represents what you do. When I designed my first logo, I hired a graphic designer to help. (See www.AspireNow.com). My second logo, third, fourth, and fifth, I hired out help, too. Now I design logos for others whenever I want the side work, see www.ARRiiVE.com for an example of a logo I designed.
2. Professional Business Card. Hire a professional designer and use proper card stock. You'd be surprised how much more seriously people take you when you make this one simple change. If you're using the Avery ink jet printer cards, stop right now, call me. I can help you. The layout on your card is as important as the stock. I've also seen people skimp thinking they know graphic design (artists, especially) and then after I get through with their card, they always thank me for improving their card design.
3. Professional Website. Get your website right. Don't start big (like I did) start small. Keep it simple. Then focus on getting the word out and building traffic. The good news is that today you can start a website far less expensively and with much more power than when I started AspireNow.com. The bad news is that there are MILLIONS of sites you're now competing with. You'll likely need to hire an expert who knows how to get Top 10 position on Google and can teach you tricks how to drive traffic to your site (hint, hint). I have designed many websites. At ARRiiVE Business Solutions, I still offer web design as a service even though I now outsource 98% of this work. This is a good thing, because you gain extra eyeballs on the site design challenge and also gain another expert's opinion in the process, along with someone who's been there and done that and also understands layout AND sales copy. I find this useful to my clients and they're happy with the end-result.
4. Off-line Promotions. Are you going to trade shows? Are you going door-to-door? Are you speaking publicly about your services or related topics? (Speaking drives a considerable stream of revenue to my business). Have you created a nice 3-part brochure that showcases your product(s) and service(s) properly? Again, hire it out, do it right. But once you have the material to hand someone, you have to take ACTION and get out there. Go to networking events. Leave them with something but always ASK FOR SOMETHING in return. How can they help? Who do they know? Can THEY use your service?
5. Hone your Sales Skills. Entrepreneurs must learn to sell or they will fail - period. You must be a good salesperson. Right now, I offer a lot of sales advice at the ARRiiVE: Innovations In Business blog. You can browse around there, although sign-up for the blog on email because in the future I'll be offering video training to help you improve your sales techniques and grow success.
6. Improve Your Marketing Pitch. When you can say what you do in 20 seconds and people get excited and ask you to meet with them, you've got your pitch refined. Seriously, that's the essence of it, right there. Test it, test it, test it, practice saying it BEFORE that important contact at the mixer you attend, so you have it right on target there and capture what you need from those vital interactions.
There's so much more to being an entrepreneur... if I could leave you with one super-valuable piece of advice I learned the hard way: downsize your expenses immediately. Many entrepreneurs only give themselves 6 months worth of money to make it. We all read how it takes entrepreneurs up to 5 - 10 years to succeed, but then why would we only allow our self only six months? This is stupid. It is ego. Take out your ego and downsize immediately if you are serious about making this dream a reality. Sell your house, drive a less-expensive car, get rid of HBO, do whatever it takes, but downsize your bills. Figure out how to give yourself a 5 year money plan and then spend your money wisely.
If I had done this one step of advice I just gave you, I would have incurred zero debt during my first five years of business. Instead, I continued to live in an expensive house, drive a nice truck, and kept the cable bill on. Be smart with your money, and then figure out how to make more money quickly, and build, and improve, and learn, and improve. Notice I said "learn" not fail. I don't view failure as failure unless I failed to learn from it. So, I say learn, build, improve, learn, build, improve... it's a multi-part process. We will take a step back once in a while. But learn and then go two or three steps forward.
Take a deep breath... exciting days are ahead of you!
Coming soon:
Be Different: The Savvy Entrepreneur Series, part 3 of 10.
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Jan 24, 2008
International Copyrights
International Copyrights: Part I
Global Copyright Theft: Is Anyone Else Concerned?
I'm investigating what rights American and English companies have in the increasing global marketplace regarding copyrights and trademarks.
Relating to this topic, I just came across this quotation today, and had to share it with you:
What is going to happen when China makes the full leap to playing on the Internet and competing with American, English, Australian, and Indian ideas? China does not have the ethic or moral that "stealing" ideas is wrong (not that all American, English, Australian, or Indian's do, either) but certainly there is a looming concern about what happens to intellectual property when there is no respect for it?
“China’s failure to police intellectual property, in effect, creates a massive global subsidy worth hundreds of billions of dollars to its business and people. Seen another way, China’s vast counterfeiting schemes act on the rest of the world the way colonial armies once did, invading deep into the economies of their victims, expropriating their most valued assets, and in so doing, undermining their victims’ ability to counter. As China grows into a great power, the wealth transferred into the country by stealing intellectual property will propel it forward.” - China, Inc., Ted C. Fishman
Personally, I've already had an audio program pirated by unscrupulous individuals in Malaysia. It happens to big companies and individuals. Make sure you take the steps you need to take to safeguard your intellectual property. As the world flattens and everyone in all countries are sharing with each other in this "small world" that we are progressively living in, it is important that you nurture, grow, and protect the ideas that propel your business success.
Here's a couple of resources for you to better understand international trademark and copyright law and your rights, which I provide for your entertainment purposes:
http://www.symbus.com/
http://www.trademarksovernight.com/int_trademark.html
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Copyright © 2008 by Scott Andrews, CEO of ARRiiVE Business Solutions. Quote by China, Inc. copyright China, Inc. No infringement intended.
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Dec 7, 2007
Funniest Business Idea
I recently read an article at ShoeMoney, where the author talks about mistakes in business he's made over his lifetime. Some of these are pretty funny, and worth reading. This one was the most funny:
"ShoeMoney Petroleum Company -
(I cant believe im actually telling these in public)
Ok Follow me here -I want to purchase a Gas Station and Give away Free Gas
The catch is like the gas would come out really slow and also you would be limited as to how much you could get per week. (Like max 50 gallons a week).
How do I make money ? EASY - I would setup paintball guns around the gas station with webcams that would let people from the internet take shots at the people filling up there cars with gas. You could charge per shot or a xxxx amounts of shots per month for a set fee.
PROBLEM - I talked to a city council member about this and he told me there was a “no flying ordinance” or something rule within city limits however I could maybe do it in the country…"
Do you have a funny business idea? Please comment and share! Maybe these are good ideas for a reality show? I read in the comments below this that one user thought a better idea would be to have women in bikinis (a Hooters gas station?) who then get spashed with paintball guns.
The things some people think of!
Did you ever play the game Inventors, by Parker Brothers? I thought it was funny. One invention had this idea that you could fly by putting a chicken coup cage on your head. Yes, someone actually patented the idea a couple of hundred years ago. It seems some Big Ideas are just Dumb Ideas. I have yet to see anyone fly with that contraption on their head. They had some other ideas like an automatic hat tipper. I suppose that one gentleman felt it was a nuisance to tip his hat to people as a gesture of kindness. Thus, a gadget to save him the hassle. Then the people in society changed dress fashions and just stopped wearing hats. Oh well. So much for that idea.
Why not share your funny business ideas here? Maybe I'll even have a contest on this one. The craziest ideas people ever have in business.... stay tuned....
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Post by Scott Andrews, CEO of ARRiiVE Business Solutions.
ARRiiVE Business Solutions helps executives improve sales, launch products and services, and build dynamic, cross-functional collaborative teams. For more information, contact info (at)ARRiiVE (dot) com or call us at 1 (805) 459-6939.
Copyright © 2007 by ARRiiVE Business Solutions. All Rights Reserved. You may republish this article only if you publish in WHOLE with the COPYRIGHT and ALL ACTIVE LINKS intact.
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