It takes a fraction of a second to be hit with a life-changing idea that could possibly alter the course of history and social-economical development all around the world. It requires little effort at all as most times they come to us as inspirations; gifts form the gods. But guess what, it takes even far lesser effort far, lesser time for an idea to remain what it is; just an idea.
Ideas are foundations on which the world was built, it is from them that we have been able to make so many advancements technologically and economically wise. Imagine if no one absolutely no one had all conceived the idea of bettering the transportation system, we would have still been riding horses and jousting. Now imagine if after conceiving the idea of a motorcycle or a bicycle or a car, the owner of the idea just decides to stay idle and let the ideas manifest itself. What a tragedy that would have been.
Now this applies to you. In a progressive world marred with so much erratic changes ideas literally hit us every second while we are walking on the road, bathing under the shower or having conversations with someone.
Many ideas have been tried to be converted into reality to no avail because some ideas are just better on paper and are impracticable in real life. And some ideas even when they are practicable in real life to fall off in the process of trying to translate them into reality.
This, therefore, begs the following questions.
Is this a great idea? Can this great Idea be turned into a successful business module? What are the steps needed to turn this idea into a successful business?
The following article acts as a guide in identifying a great business idea and the right actions required to turn those ideas into a reality.
Know your idea
The first step in turning a great idea into a business is knowing just what the idea is all about. In most cases, we get lost in the euphoria of getting what seems like a great idea for a business that we do not scrutinize the idea in details. A good example is like getting an idea about people being able to pay their taxes through an app. It is a great idea, isn’t it? But without proper scrutiny, we would not ask the following questions what is the idea of solving? How will I make money form it? So the idea is when you get an idea take some time out to think it out. Find its flaws and weaknesses. Take your time to know just what it is all about and what could go wrong in trying to turn it into a business.
Identify your marker
Once you have been able to know your idea, work on it and perfect it. The next set is identifying your market. Every idea or business has a market that it appeals too, your is not any different. Identifying your market lets you come up with more practical ways to implement your business to meet your target market. In determining your market you must know how much they will be willing to spend on a product like yours? How they would use your product and often the consumption of your product will be. It is of utmost importance that you know your market. Unless you would probably be drifting with the wind, spending money on meaningless campaigns when you could focus all your energy towards your potential customers.
Test your market
When checking how deep a river is you don’t do with two feet, do you? My guess is no. You do with just one foot and if it is too deep you withdraw and if it isn’t you go ahead. The same thing applies when trying to implement your business. It is advisable you do not plunge in immediately all out. You can start by testing your market. A prototype to be exact. This allows you to gauge the market’s reaction to your business. If you get a positive response then you know that you have done something right and your business is ready for mass consumption. If the feedback you get is negative then you know that your product is not yet ready for mass consumption. The truth is that at the end of the regardless of the type of feedback you get; positive or negative you win because you have been given rare insight as to what works and what doesn’t work without denting the image of your company. Feedback is key to progress.
Assess your market
Sometimes the scale of your business is too big for an idea. Imagine having to spend millions of dollars in a market worth only thousands of dollars. In this case not only does this result in loss and waste of investment. It is also a massive waste of time. Assessing your market lets you know just how much investment and time are required to be put in to earn a profit and if the profit, when weighed in comparison with the effort put in still, makes everything worthwhile.
Access to funds
Every business requires investment capital to start off. Some very little, others need mammoth investment. In either case, you must know where you will be able to access your funds. If it is something you can manage. Maybe you have savings somewhere that would fit it the bill. Then that is your investment capital. If your business requires a great deal of money. Then you should know where to look for funds or grants that will help kick-start your business. One thing though is that before go looking for funds you should know exactly how much you need for a particular business and how much you need to get everything running. A common mistake people often make is that they fail to realize that some of their ideas are capital intensive in the early stages and require a constant flow of money before it can become autonomous. Such people in a bid of getting an idea up and running start with very little and the business, as a result, runs for a short time before meeting its inevitable end. Although it is good to act fast, patience is a virtue every entrepreneur must learn. Do not get started until you have ticked all boxes or at least all the important boxes. Remember it is better to delay in starting a business and succeeding when you do than starting a business in a hurry only to kill it off because of inability to continue.
Following these steps will definitely guide you into bringing your idea into reality but till then take the first step by dreaming.
