A man hung on to his idea to start a small businesses and worked hard to bring it into reality. After the inevitable false starts and dead ends, he got his hand and body lotion micro-enterprise off the ground. He started small, hand selling at Saturday morning markets, travelling from one part of the city to another like a Gypsy. His product was of a high quality made with a combination of milk and honey. Soon it began to take off. He branched out into online selling and keeps growing his business.
How many people do you know who come up with a promising idea but never turn their business idea into reality? Some research says that half of the working population have an idea that they wish to turn into a micro-enterprise, small hobby business or small business. Yet the percentage of those who do take their business idea and make it into reality is minuscule. Why is that so? Is it because they don’t have cash? Don’t they have motivation? Or, don’t they have the right mentor or business adviser to help and encourge them to bring their ideas to life?
Those people with ideas that do something about them find a way. They won’t let lack of resources, obstacles or well meaning friends or family discourage them. If a mentor is not available they will just go on right ahead working on their own to make their dream a reality. These are the entrepreneurs who won’t take no for an answer.
Yet it can be helpful if you are able to find a small business idea accelerator adviser. Unfortunately, you won’t find many who have run small ventures themselves and failed. Why is it so important that a business adviser should have failed? The reason is simply that those who fail at what they are doing and make a plan to succeed know more ways to succeed than those who have had an easy ride through life.
Hard knocks, rocks in the road, have shaped their experience. The big bonus is that they bring new first-hand, practical and street wise experience that you can’t get anywhere else. The adviser who knows all the theories but has never put them into practice is like the person who is an academic – her or his head crammed with knowledge but has not made a success through the practical application of their knowledge.
It’s also very important that an idea accelerator business adviser can offer you a strong network because your idea might need to be assisted by a range of experts from different fields. This could include a mentor who has specific expertise in your line of business. For example, you increase your odds of success if you are going into the restaurant business and can be mentored by a restauranteer. But you probably need other experts to help such as engineers, finance experts and lawyers. You may also need at a later stage, depending on whether your platform will be online or not, marketers, developers, graphic artists and web designers.
The business idea accelerator adviser will help you validate your idea with customers, assist you to find out if people are willing to pay for whatever solution you are looking to build, prepare basic prototypes and assist you with a one-page business plan and possibly a one-page marketing plan.
Ultimately you need to look for an adviser that you can trust. There is no guarantee that an adviser can make your idea successful. All he or she can do is to help increase the probability of your success. That comes from accurate thinking. You have got to be prepared to accurately think through your value proposition, your market, the resources you’re putting into bringing your idea to life, including your time and energy. In an informal, casual and non-intimidating environment, you can act on your promising idea.
