A small business owner has been running his service business for more than two decades and now wants to chuck it up and go into a niche in the tourism sector. It’s a promising new business idea which he has been working on for the past two years.
But will he ever get it off the ground?
There is a huge difference between coming up with a promising new business idea and implementing it. Virtually anyone can do some personal brainstorming and can come up with some promising new business ideas. But probably only one in 10 – or it could be far less – have the commitment to follow through. Without implementation, there is no innovation.
How do you get your new business idea off the ground? We are talking here after you have done your selection of your promising idea based on business criteria. You need to ask yourself some hard questions about the viability of an idea. The basic premise of any business is to make money. This might seem blunt and mercenary to those who may be looking for a “lifestyle” business that suits their passion. That’s all very well but unless a business is going to make money, you may as well start a charity or non-profit.
Each entrepreneur has their own way or method about implementing their business idea. One way to start is to test your business idea on a small scale to iron out any flaws in your initial concept and obtain a feel for demand. Deciding whether to proceed to the next stage is a judgement call that you have to make. If you have been able to make actual sales in your initial testing, you will have a far better idea of the viability of your business.
When you have an idea of how your new service or product is going to perform in the market, the next step would be to develop organised plans of how you are going to implement your idea. Some entrepreneurs start with a business plan, especially if they are going to try to raise money to invest in the business. Some entrepreneurs don’t believe in business planning on paper but have thought it out in their head. There is no one way to do anything so whatever works for you is what you should pursue.
At a bare minimum you should at least know what sort of target or goal income you aim to achieve whether it be monthly or annually. Next up is further development of your product or service – how you are going to manufacture your product or what features your service will provide? In a competitive marketplace, your service needs to be differentiated from your competitors.
Other areas: distribution, marketing and sales. How are you going to get your product or service to your customers? Where are you going to promote or advertise your product so potential customers get to know about it? Can your business initially run on no-cost, low-cost marketing methods? How effective are you at selling? Do you plan to just wing it or do you require some basic training in sales?
Administration is not always on top of the entrepreneur’s list when implementing a new business idea. But without it, depending on the nature of your business, you could become unstuck. You’ve got to have some basic invoicing method, a process to capture VAT returns, follow up on your creditors and debtors. Basically you need an administration system. The simpler the better. For the business idea that I mentioned earlier, they will need to obtain special licences and permits.
If you want to get your promising business idea off the ground and make it fly, you want to look at a new resource called “Breakthrough Ideas”. It’s a practical, no-nonsense guide that shows you how to come up with promising new business ideas and implement them. It takes you through the entire process of coming up with a new business idea, selecting your best ideas based on objective criteria, testing and implementation including running your small venture. Just click here if you are interested.
