How to launch your idea into a business
Why are Bezos, Gates and Zuckerberg successful? Is it luck? is it gift?, if you ask this question from them, they will give you a simple answer, most probably the answer will be “We believed in our idea and took positive action to execute the idea”, I participated in a venture funding programme recently, and the biggest problem of most of the young and old entrepreneurs is not funding, their problem is they don’t know how to execute the ideas they have.
The winners are not people with great ideas, people who execute their great ideas are the winners.
As a business coach and mentor, this is what I learned from great business leaders of this world on how to execute our great ideas, entrepreneurs, here’s how to execute your great idea, a step by step process.
Define your purpose
What is your great idea all about? Is it to make money, is it to change the world, is it to solve a problem? knowing your purpose helps you to align your idea accordingly, have you got your purpose right? That the ultimate first step you can take on your idea
Develop your idea to a product/service.
None of the successful businessmen went to 0 to 100 in one day, patience is important and converting your idea to a product is very vital, the idea of selling books online became amozon.com, create a prototype, test it with a test market, start small and grow
Develop your idea to demonstrate, improve and socialize it until it is fully formed.
Prepare a checklist
You have to have a workflow and plan, prepare a check-list of things-to-do, a good to-do list is as important as the idea, your checklist has to be precise to the point and practical to do, a checklist will guide you through your process and helps you to focus on important tasks, you know what to do clearly when you are focused.
Announce it loud
Announce it loud, not your great idea, about your intention of doing it, that’s how I was able to leave my high paying job and venture out, it is difficult to go back when you are public, of course, the determination matters. Another good thing about going public is, you will come to know like-minded people and motivation to do it.
Find partners
You need people to execute great ideas, find partners who can help you to achieve your goal, for me, I partnered with a venture capital firm to reach out to the entrepreneurs, it can be technical assistance, operations or distribution, you must understand one thing, alone you can’t scale and you need partners to share your workload.
Create a network
What can a network do for you? A lot, your network is the first set of people who know you and believes in you, you can ask for help, you can ask for support, you can ask for referrals and contact. For me, my network helped me a lot to venture out, the word of mouth gave me lots of opportunities to increase my client base.
Don’t delay to enter
You have to develop your product or service, but do not get stuck there, waiting for perfect time to enter the market killed lots of great ideas, because, there is always a possibility of a better solution for anything and everything, so delaying might outdate your idea. Plan well, develop, test and enter as soon as you ready.
Remember the first para, the winners are not people with great ideas, people who execute their great idea are the winners.
Author, John Theodore is a venture capital expert and expert in mentoring entrepreneurs, he works with VC’s and startups, write to ask@advisor.lk to connect with him.
