Tag: breakthrough ideas

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Why you probably mustn’t start a business with a new idea

Photo by Ines Álvarez Fdez on Unsplash

Studies show that up to 90% of new products fail. Even that big companies get it wrong. These are the companies with giant research and development budgets and the brightest minds. Their failure rate for new small businesses is about 90% in the first year. Entrepreneurs and start-up founders get it wrong too.

Developing a new idea requires you to start a new venture or small business. Many people who come up with a promising new business idea have never run their own business. This means that they have to learn how to firstly, develop a product or service which means commercialising it and secondly run a small business successfully.

Do you have what it takes to start and develop a new product or service from scratch and then run a successful venture?

To help you answer this question, let’s look at some basic requirements to successfully start and develop a new product or service:

1 Personal characteristics. You will need all the drive, ambition entrepreneurial skills, perseverance and patience to get a new product or service off the ground. Do yourself a favour and take a personal entrepreneurial test to see if you make the cut.
2 Business skills and experience. As I mentioned, commercialising a product or service idea eventually requires running a business. Do you know the difference between an income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement? You will need to. Any business is hungry for cash and you need above everything else to know how to manage cash.
3 Marketing. Products or services don’t magically sell themselves. Someone needs the marketing and communications flay to get people interested in whatever you are selling and to convince them to buy. Even mediocre products can sell well through effective marketing. Just take a look around on the supermarket shelves and you’ll see that the “me-two” products are doing pretty well. Marketing requires knowledge of positioning, messaging, consumer or buyer psychology and behaviour as well as traditional and new media.

In taking your new business idea from mere concept, notion or thought to an actual prototype and then to commercialise it you will need to have experience in all find assistance with the following areas:

1 Developing new business ideas
2 The process for commercialising ideas
3 Financing the business idea
4 Implementing the business idea
5 Marketing your product/service/business
6 Running your business

Not many people have made developing the new business idea the speciality so it will be difficult to find adviser in this area, especially one that will lead you to successfully developing your product or service idea from concept to prototype and eventual product that will be distributed to different retail platforms. The other five areas I mentioned have many advisers but they will come with the large price ticket. Perhaps the most valuable will be in the marketing of your product or service or business because as I have mentioned products or services don’t sell themselves. With the correct marketing and selling of the benefits of a product or service, it can sell beyond expectations. Fans of the iPhone’s you early in the morning to buy the new iPhone when it is released each year.

If you are serious about taking your new business idea and developing it into a product or service and want to find out what’s required and how to go about doing it, then you need to get yourself a copy of “Breakthrough Ideas”. It will cost you far less than a consultation with a business adviser but will be priceless in helping you decide how to go about commercialising your promising new business idea. Get your copy here.

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Business radio jocks, business advisers and other small business myth makers

Copyright Chesney Bradshaw

A business radio jock asked a business consultant what were the three most important things for the creation of small enterprise. The business consultant said they were access to finance, access to markets and access to business knowledge. Yes, there is some truth in this but it was interesting that the business adviser started off with access to finance. It came in late to the conversation but one wonders whether or not this business adviser is attached in some way to a lending institution. Access to markets makes it sound as if there were people or other institutions preventing the small business owner from entering a market. In a free market the only real barrier to entry is competence and economies of scale. Access to business knowledge is an interesting one because to get real business smarts, you don’t have to attend a business course. Real, actionable business knowledge and information can be found from those who have run small businesses, creating them from scratch and business mentors. Continue reading “Business radio jocks, business advisers and other small business myth makers”

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Is it time to wake up?

A business person started a restaurant, ran it successfully for five years, and realised that the long working hours were killing him. He decided to sell up and start a new wholesale business in the food trade.

How many of us wake up in time before disaster strikes? How many small business owners set aside time to reflect on how far they’ve come, what is wrong in their business and lives and make decisions to change things? Continue reading “Is it time to wake up?”

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Old wine in new bottles – opportunities for entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs in the Western Cape wine district, found a new opportunity to take something old and turn it into a money-spinner.

They have found old vineyards, abandoned long ago, and have re-established them. Several revenue streams are flowing: consulting to farm owners who want to re-establish old vineyards, selling of the wines from these vintage vineyards and tourist tours.

How’s that for coming up with a new idea that can churn out money? Continue reading “Old wine in new bottles – opportunities for entrepreneurs”

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Will it fly? How do you know if your new business idea has been formed under the wrong assumptions… before you take the leap

Are you ready for the Thanksgiving turkey?

In Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book The Black Swan, he has the example of the Thanksgiving turkey that leads a comfortable life for about 999 days, eating and ranging around a small patch of grass. The turkey becomes comfortable and assumes this cycle of eat-relax-sleep will continue on indefinitely. But on the thousandth day, Taleb’s Thanksgiving turkey finds his head on the chopping block and the good times come to an abrupt end. Continue reading “Will it fly? How do you know if your new business idea has been formed under the wrong assumptions… before you take the leap”

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Passion is not enough – compact guide in business and entrepreneurship for college and university students

January 2017. Copyright Chesney Bradshaw
January 2017. Copyright Chesney Bradshaw

If you want to form and run your own start-up business, you won’t find it landing up on your doorstep ready to turn the switch. It will take acquiring new knowledge, experience and time and effort. If you’ve never started or run a small business before, there is no other way but to put in the hours.

Where do you start? It all begins with a seed of an idea. Some instant experts claim that an idea is 1% of what it takes to start a new product or service and the other 99% is execution. It’s probably 20% idea and 80% execution. Why do I say this? It’s because you’re unlikely to come up with one promising idea and use it straight off the bat. If you have a look at my book “Breakthrough Ideas”, you’ll see that you need to generate or find several ideas before you come up with something that matches your potential market, your passion and your own skills and knowledge. Continue reading “Passion is not enough – compact guide in business and entrepreneurship for college and university students”

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How all these people can multiply their services and income from just one breakthrough idea

Published by Bell & Cray Media
Published by Bell & Cray Media

Be aware that you can’t stand still in whatever profession or business you are in because changing times demand new ideas, new approaches and new methods.

The sad fact is that people are being left behind, professionals are being made redundant and businesses are closing down because of rapid change and economic upheaval.

Fortunately, there is a way to come up with new approaches, new concepts and new solutions whatever your professional business. For individuals who are inspired to act and small business owners who are ambitious and open to new ideas, opportunities can be found that put them ahead of their peers or competitors.

If you are in any one of the professions or small businesses listed below, you will find that my new book “Breakthrough Ideas: How to Produce Ideas for Profit in Your Life and Business” can help you quickly think up new products and better ways to multiply the value of your personal services and income.

Retail business owners – Look around, see how restaurants close in six months and become Asian clothing stores. Pool shops in six months become pet stores. What’s happening? Changing times. Use proven idea tools and techniques to “recession proof” your small retail business and diversify your customer base.
Bed and breakfast owners – You can increase your business by using techniques and tools that bring in more visitors and improve your gross margins.
Saturday morning market owners – Generate new ideas to more effectively attract quality store owners and bring more customers to your morning market.
Country business owners – If you’ve always yearned to live in the country and enjoy a country lifestyle but don’t know how you could make income, then use the easy-to-follow steps to come up with income-generating opportunities.
Sales managers – Punch-up your sales with personal brainstorming to give better value to your customers and leave your competitors grovelling in the dust. In this challenging economy, new solutions are crucial to new problems.
Trainers – Your same old “creativity” exercises no longer interest your participants. Why not come up with new creativity games or exercises that excite your participants… and encourage them to tell their friends?
Farmers – only if you’re a farmer will you know just how important profitability has become to farming operations. Now, you can come up with new ideas, new methods and approaches to make your farming income more viable. If you’ve wanted to develop a side-income, use the idea-generation system to produce a business that will provide “insurance” in tight times.
Teachers and lecturers in entrepreneurship – As entrepreneurship makes its way into basic and higher education curricula don’t be left behind. Get your creativity working to make your courses more real-world and intriguing, and show students how to turn their business ideas into viable new products and services.
Marketing agency owners – Your clients are demanding more creative ways of marketing on ever tight budgets. Don’t rely on luck or what you’ve done in the past. Learn to systematically come up with attention-getting, more profitable marketing plans and campaigns.

Breakthrough Ideas” it is for the solution-finder, the person who wants to become a better idea-generator and a sharper opportunity seeker. It’s based on real-world experience, research into creativity, proven methods and ideas that have succeeded. By the end of the first chapter, which will only take a few minutes, you will produce new ideas that could spark your personal or business breakthrough.

I will give you my 100% NO-RISK Guarantee if you want my book “Breakthrough Ideas”. If you are not absolutely delighted, I will promptly refund your purchase. Just send your copy back to me. No questions asked. No hard feelings.

Do yourself a favour and pick up your copy today…

You will need to grab this special edition NOW for just $29.95!

Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to invest at no risk this small amount in your future?

Inspire yourself to act NOW. Enough stalling, go get your own copy NOW!

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How long does it take before promising ideas pop up?

(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)
(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)

A business and innovation consultant who also does training recently said that he had found after running over 100 structured group brainstorming sessions that it takes some time to warm up before quality ideas start to flow. He believes that in group brainstorming innovative ideas start to occur after about 25 minutes while in one-on-one sessions the lead time is about one hour and 15 minutes.

This is not a surprising finding. It’s a well known phenomenon that it takes time for the creative imagination to warm up. You can’t just expect to say now I need ideas and for them to pop up in your mind. Once the mind starts combining ideas, cross pollinating concepts and looking at problems from different perspectives, new solutions start to emerge. Continue reading “How long does it take before promising ideas pop up?”

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Real, simple ideas versus gimmicks and novelties

(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)
(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)

A while back Time Magazine ran a story on an innovation incubator and showed photographs of some of the “innovations”. The type of thing they were excited about was some new apps for cellphones that recorded daily tasks and calories and a small yellow rubber duck with a motorised unit to speed around your bath. Now, it’s important to encourage new ideas but let’s be honest, some things are simple, practical ideas while others are merely gimmicks and novelties.

Gimmicks remind me of these corporate gifts such as a battery or solar powered torch with different tools including a knife, scissors and a star screwdriver. The problem is that when you take it out for the first time to wander around the dark in your home because of another blackout, the torch packs in for good. It’s not to say that all corporate novelty gifts are rubbish. Someone some time back gave me a small electric-powered torch that you can plug into the wall and charge. The length of time that this torch lasts is amazing and it gives you fairly good light in the on-off blackouts.

Then there are the real, simple, smart products. I’m thinking of a double-insulated metal water bottle which comes in a stylish design and different colours. It avoids the problem of using plastic bottles for water and is great for hiking and other outdoor activities. This water bottle must have something going for it – at last count the woman who came up with the idea had sold four million units. Another simple and useful product is the surf wear line for women that a Swede came up with on a surfing safari in Costa Rica. Her product solves a real problem for women surfers. She found that the women swimwear she used while surfing kept falling off while out there in the surf riding big waves. So, she decided to come up with her own woman’s surf wear line and has done well.

Right here in South Africa innovation-minded people have come up with useful, simple new ideas such as the seed-on-a-reel product that makes planting seeds easy and accurate, a lotion that relieves bluebottle and insect stings and a special tailgate step ladder that is useful for stepping onto pickups (bakkies or 4×4’s) for household repairers and boulders.

All I’m saying is that gimmicks are fine if you want a novelty that will catch people’s attention. But if you want to reach a larger market, you need to have something that is practical, simple and smart and doesn’t break up into pieces the first time you use it.

Coming up with a bit breakthrough ideas for products and services need not be complicated. You can find solutions to the process of “Breakthrough Ideas”. A real simple and practical system shows you step-by-step how you can go for a breakthrough, a breakthrough in your life, by following proven methods.

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One thing an entrepreneur values most

(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)
(Copyright © 2015 by Chesney Bradshaw, all rights reserved)

I was talking to a successful entrepreneur the other day and asked him what he valued most in entrepreneurial business leaders. His answer surprised me. All the business consultants, advisers and the coterie of small business gurus believe that they can read the mind of the entrepreneur but when you actually sit face-to-face with entrepreneurs, you know, the things they value of different to what you hear. Continue reading “One thing an entrepreneur values most”