Six Things to take your ideas from Worthless to Valuable
Everyone thinks they have a great idea.
But ideas are worthless without refinement. Ideas are easy to generate and almost always over-valued by their creator.
In this blog, I outline the six things you can do to take your idea from worthless to valuable.
1. Comprehensive Due-Diligence
Workshop, draft and document the entire spec of your idea from concept to completion and launch.
Many questions must be asked.
Is it a product or service? If it is digital, is it a game or utility?
What problem does it solve?
How many steps or processes will it take to create?
What is the cost of creation?
Given time and cost to create, what price will you sell it for and who is your target market?
What are the distribution channels to market?
What money, resources and team around you are needed to give birth to this idea?
What are the barriers and obstacles facing you?
Why this idea?
What are you prepared to sacrifice to share this idea with the world?
2. Market Demand
Is there really a market demand for this idea?
Don’t just ask friends and family because they love you and will lie to you.
What other products or services are already out there in this market?
How is the market segmented?
What problems do existing offerings solve?
What unique elements does your idea bring to the market?
Does it solve the same problem, another problem or additional problems?
What competitive advantage does your idea have on price, features and benefits?
3. Completeness
Your idea must be fully formed.
Spec, prep and price.
A timeline of idea evolution and delivery from concept to delivery.
Complete.
Finished.
4. Pitch Perfect
Your idea pitch must be perfect.
The short-pitch. The medium-pitch. The long-pitch.
How many customer personas does your idea target and what are the specific pitches to each persona?
Ask colleagues and mentors to be independent in challenging your pitch with questions and objections.
Execute as many dry-runs as possible.
Practice. Practice. Practice.
5. Market Penetration
Can you compete in this market with your idea?
What is your marketing plan?
Are your competitors market giants?
Do they have patents, trademarks and exclusive licensing?
Will their legal team crush you?
How will you gain market attention?
What resources and budget do you have to capture market attention?
What is your call to action?
6. Shipped
Seth Godin famously challenges entrepreneurs to commit to a ‘shipped’ date because until your idea is shipped (delivered), it isn’t real.
What date will your idea be shipped?
How is fulfilment handled in different markets – physical, digital or geographical?
What are the logistical challenges and costs of fulfilment?
This is the real work around bringing ideas to life.
Taking shortcuts is a sure-fire way of wasting time, money and energy on futile pursuits.
Keeping the ego at bay is also critical when the heart and mind is racing ahead.
Your ideas are not worthless.
They just need to meet the rigour of due process.
By eliminating the passes, you get to focus on your one big idea.
Good idea?
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