Tag: Billion Dollar Ideas

Continuation from yesterday…..(How To Validate Your Business Idea With Crowdfunding)

Example: Develop a detailed presentation for your Pet Smart Phone.  Concentrate on outlining all of its benefits and features.  If at all possible, build a working model and produce a video.  Once ready, find a crowdfunding platform that satisfies all your needs. Post your project on the site and promote it in order to see what kind of a response you will get. Go to work and deliver on all of the promises made during this process.

Until now we have concentrate on steps that were, more or less, free.  Where your time and efforts were the only real requirements.  Yet, if you were to follow the steps above you would be able to ascertain a fairly good idea if your product or service was legitimate.  If it wasn’t you would have to go back to the drawing board and then repeat the process outlined here for your new or adjusted idea. More importantly, if your product, service or idea passed the steps above with flying colors, it would be an opportune time to move on to the Idea Validation Level #2.   Assuming you would like to continue on with developing your idea.

Level #2: An In-Depth Idea Scan

This is where the proverbial tires hit the pavement. In addition to your time commitment, some sort of a monetary commitment will be necessary at this stage. This is where you will develop a working sample of your product or service and attempt to sell it in a real world environment.   And while most people will make a big deal out of it, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, a minimally viable product is all that you are trying to accomplish at this stage.  Build it fast, build it cheap and ship.

“Real Artists Ship”
-Steve Jobs

Let’s now take a quick look at a number of different business models to see how you can implement this step with rapid speed and effectiveness.  Just remember, all you are trying to do is determine if you have a viable product or service on your hands.

Online Businesses:

Buy a domain and a web hosting package for your business. Setup a WordPress site and begin to develop your website. Total time and monetary investment…..about 1 hour and $70/year. I would recommend using Bluehost.com if you decide to go this route.  If your web project requires a customized solution I would recommend hiring programmers from either Russia or India to build your site on the cheap. You can easily find such programmers on freelancing sites such as Elance.com

Thereafter, develop a minimally viable website for your product or service as fast possible and begin to promote it. The entire process should not take more than 30 days. Unless you are working on something truly unique.  Once ready, begin selling your product directly to your target audience to see what kind of a response you generate.

It also important to note that since your website will be a brand new one; you shouldn’t expect too much traffic. If any at all. If that is the case, you should rely primarily on Google Adwords or Facebook Ads to drive highly relevant leads to your product or service offering.  If you are not familiar with developing ad campaigns on these platforms I would recommend doing a lot of research into the area before committing a single dollar.

To Be Continued Tomorrow…..(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)

How To Build A Minimally Viable Product Google

Continuation From Friday….(How To Develop Business Ideas).

Are these the best 10 ideas I could come up with in 30 minutes?

Again, the point is not to come up with 10 ideal Billion dollar ideas, but to train your mind to connect the dots and to be original. While it is possible that you will be able to come up with a few multimillion dollar ideas per session, it is highly unlikely.  From my own experience, typically you will come up with unoriginal, unattainable and otherwise not very good ideas 99% of the time. Followed by a 1% “Flash of Genius” that will set you for the rest of your life. Unfortunately, we cannot get to that 1% without first going through the 99%.

As I finish the daily session, I typically go back to think about each idea for 1-2 minutes. That allows me to do a couple of things. First, it allows me to download each idea into my memory bank for future reference. Second, it allows me to determine if the idea is a good idea that requires further research or if it is a terrible idea that should be immediately disregarded.  Finally, this process gives me just enough time to cross reference today’s ideas with previous ideas that I have already stored in my idea database. Leading to some interesting and original combinations that could be worth billions.

That’s all there is to it.

IDEA VALIDATION

The next step is to validate your idea(s).  If your original ideas are not dismissed outright during the idea generation process and you believe that they might turn into something more, you MUST validate your ideas before moving forward.   You can do so on two levels.  Through an initial in-depth idea scan and through a minimal level idea implementation.

Level #1: An In-Depth Idea Scan

The idea here is to push your original business idea(s) to the furthest possible extent without first spending a single penny of capital.  In fact, time and research should be your only currency.  You can start the process by implementing the following steps.

Industry Specific Research:

As was suggested earlier in the book, you should know the industry you are about to get involved in inside and out. Assuming you are not familiar with it already.  If you are serious about a business idea you are working on, do not move beyond this step until you are very well versed in the subject matter.  Quick Warning: Disregard this step and be prepared to lose a significant amount of time and money.

Example:  Let’s assume that you believe that a smart phone market for dogs/cats is at least a multi-million dollar idea.  In this case, you would have to study two industries.  1. Electronics (smart phones and devices) and 2. Gadgets for pet. Turning each industry inside and out as you study them. This step could be easily done through doing online research and reading through industry reports.

To Be Continued Tomorrow…..(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)

How To Validate Your Business Ideas  Google

Continuation from last week…….STEP #9: Write Down At Least 10 Ideas Per Day While Cross-Referencing Them.

Finally, it is incredibly important that you write down all of the ideas that you were able to generate throughout the day. At least 10. Good or bad. Get a small notepad specifically for this purpose and DO NOT skip this step. Ideas that might seem irrelevant today might turn into something big a few months down the road. If you are to skip this step it is highly probable that today’s ideas will be forgotten forever and all of your hard work will be in vain. Write them down, even if they suck.

There are tens of thousands of multimillion dollar businesses out there that started our as horrible ideas.  If you would like to sell “Bacon Flavored Ice Cream to Dogs”, but think it’s a terrible idea….don’t be so fast to dismiss it. Write it down. Maybe it is a terrible idea, but maybe it is your multimillion dollar business. Until you do a little bit more research into the space, you won’t be able to answer that question.  Either way, make sure you write it down.

As was suggested earlier, your ideas will get better as you keep practicing this craft daily. Plus, you will gain an uncanny ability to go back and forth between your new and old ideas. Creating some amazing combinations in the process. Similar to what the Idea Matrix process above was  able to accomplish.  With one primary difference. This time you will be working with your own original ideas that are tailored specifically to your interests and desires.

Summary:

Thus far, we have looked at 9 different approaches you can implement today in order to start generating amazing business ideas.  Further, we have covered the fact that idea generation is a skill that can be learned and improved upon. Assuming that time and effort are dedicated to the process.

Given enough daily practice anyone can become an expert in idea generation over a relatively short period of time. That, of course, can mean all the difference between starting a $100,000/year and $100 Million/year business.  If you have no idea which business to start, begin implementing all of the steps above immediately.

My Own Example:

The daily routine I implement when I am actively pursuing various business or investment ideas is as follows.

First, here is what I need.

• 30 minutes. Daily.
• A notepad.
• A pen.
• An idea matrix.
• Ability to disconnect from everything.
• A quiet coffee shop or a dinner (optional)

To Be Continued Tomorrow…….(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Site?)

Business Idea Generation Tips Google

Continuation from yesterday……

STEP #7:  Create an “Idea Soup” Matrix

This is an extremely powerful approach and one of my favorite ways to generate amazing ideas. Create a matrix of sorts with 10 to 20 or even 100 different words, industries, businesses, etc… spread across the page as a matrix. For instance, one square would have a word “robotics” in it while another square might have a phrase “fast food” in it. Here is just a small example.

Business Cards	Smart Phone	Kitchen
Cloud	Boxing	Car
Chemical Engineering	Revolution	Dog
Candle	Beautiful Girl	Stapler
Sandwich	China	Medical Center

What you would have to do next is very simply. Go through the matrix and randomly combine different words, businesses or industries in order to create unique combinations.  In this instance, you can combine fast food and robotics and begin think of various business ideas that bring robotics into the fast food industry. At the end of the day, there might be nothing there but a lot of wishful thinking. At the same time, by combining these unique concepts you might be able to think of something that can eventually turn into that “huge payoff” idea.

As was mentioned earlier in the book, this sort of an approach will allow you to combine various concepts that were otherwise unrelated. Giving you the ability to come up with some interesting and crazy ideas that you might have never discovered otherwise. How else can you come up with an idea for “Dog Candles” or “Medical Centers in China”?   Plus, it’s a ton of fun.  The best thing about these matrixes and why I like using them so much is the fact that they…

• A. Are easy and fast to create (no more than 10 minutes).
• B. Help you generate original thinking.
• C. Offer an infinite number of unique possibilities.

Plus, if you already know what industry or area you would like concentrate on, you can tailor your matrix to do just that.  You would do so by tailoring the keyword mix to your specifications. For example, if you would love to concentrate on the coffee industry you would populate 50% of your matrix with coffee related keywords while keeping the other half random. This type of a mix will produce the best possible result.

STEP #8: Meditate

While dismissed by many, this is one of the best ways to generate brilliant business ideas. Ideas that will literally knock your socks off.  Yet, you have to approach the process with one slight adjustment. At least in this case, meditation for the sake of meditation will do very little to help your cause.

You must first complete Steps 1-7. Then meditate on the information gathered or created in those steps. Meditate on the industry or the company specific information, on various products, on your research and on various business ideas you were able to come up with during the process.   As you meditate, you mind will connect the dots in some unexpected ways.  Yielding some powerful ideas in the process. It is highly encouraged that you allocate 15 minutes a day to this practice, particularly, if you are in the process of generation new ideas.

To Be Continued On Monday…...(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)

Create Killer Business Ideas While Meditating Google

Continuation from yesterday…….STEP #6:  Be Wary of the High Tech Ideas 

In relative terms very few people build their fortunes from the high technology field. Most of the time it’s the true and tried methods of starting any kind of a business and growing it from nothing into something. As you very well known, that takes a lot of hard work, perseverance, patience and even luck.

Unfortunately, all we hear about is Google, Apple and hundreds of other high technology companies that have made it big. Don’t pay any attention to that. The technology space at the highest level is very unpredictable. You have just about as much of a chance of starting the next Microsoft or the next Instagram as winning a lottery.  Instead, you will have a much better chance in concentrating on using new technologies in existing and proven business models.

For most of us, it makes perfect sense not to be a fore runner.  The risk of failure is just too high when you are trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t.  What will be accepted by the marketplace and what will fail. While the draw of making millions from the high tech field is always there, never forget, most fortunes are made the old fashioned way….Hard Work.

One of my previous business ventures, ExpertZoo.com is a perfect illustration of that. We first started to develop the concept in 2007. We thought that we had a great idea. A social business network that would facilitate transactions and interactions between businesses/experts/service providers and consumers. In essence, a mix between LinkedIn, Yelp, Yellow Pages and Amazon.  While it was a great idea and it did generate traction in the early days, we could never make it work.

In retrospect, the concept failed due to a number of things. First, we made the overall website and our product offering way too complicated. We have tried to be everything to everyone and that tends not to work very often.  Second, we hired a large sales force and spent way too much money on marketing before ever proving the validity of our concept. Finally, we incorrectly assumed that people will both understand and fall in love with our service.  While such short comings are easy to see now, we were not able to figure it out while we were attempting to grow the company.

Point being, if your field is a high tech one and that is what you would love to do, it would only make sense for you to do so. The warning above is geared more towards those who do not have a technology background, yet would love to make millions or billions from the field.  Chances are…..it will never work.

To Be Continued Tomorrow…….(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)

Why You Should Avoid “High Tech” In Your Next Business Venture Google

Continuation from Monday………Quick Note: Be careful of what you read in various trade publications or magazines. A lot of the time authors do a fairly poor job putting that information together.  Plus, they might not be as well versed in the topic as they should be or they might be more concerned about hyping up certain products. Instead, once you have identified a product or a service, go to the root of the matter.  Various public companies in question. Read and study their annual and quarterly reports. Look at the actual sales numbers to see what is selling very well and what is not. Which product lines are growing and which product lines are dying.

To find this information, apply the following steps:

Step #1:  Identify which company sells the product or service in question.

Typically, such information is freely available on the packing itself. Still, if you are unable to find this information, please Google “who makes/offers/manufactures (product name)”

Step #2:  Find out if the company in question is a public company.

You can easily do so by going to either to http://finance.yahoo.com/  -OR-  https://www.google.com/finance and typing in the name of the company in the search box located at the top.

If nothing comes back, it means that the company you are trying to research is either a private company or it is a subsidiary of a larger corporation. If it is a subsidiary, find out what company owns it and repeat Step #2 for the parent company.

If the company is public, you are in business. You can access their quarterly and annual reports in one of two ways.

• First, search for and visit their website. Typically, they will have an Investor Relations section link readily available on their home page. Visit this section and look for recent presentations and annual reports.  This would be your best source of information.
• If you unable to find the Investor Relations section go to http://www.sec.gov/  and type in the company’s name into an upper right hand corner of the website. All public companies are required to file their reports and you will find it there. For company’s annual report, select the most recent 10-K link available.

Complete the process by studying all available information as it pertains to the industry and/or products or services of your choice.

Step #3: If the company in question is not a public company.

We have to start with the presumption that we will not be able to gather as much insider information as we would have if it was a public company. Yet, it is not all bad news and there are a number of ways around the problem.  Here is what you can do.

• Find a competitor or a company within the same industry that is a public company. Study their financial reports instead.
• Read consumer review and feedback on various portals such as Amazon.com in order to ascertain both the popularity of the product and its future potential.
• Visit a retailer carrying the product/service and talk to a salesperson. Ascertain their point of view and ask what their existing customers are saying about the product.
• Call the company and pretend to be a large buyer. Determine if they have ready to ship inventory or if the demand for the product is so high that you will have to wait. Try to gather as much insider information as possible. While this step is somewhat unethical it will allow you to confirm the information gathered from other sources.
• Seek out trade publications and other media that have recently reported on the company.

After doing all of the above you should come fairly close to having a complete analysis of the company and its products.  While you won’t have the exact sales numbers (as you would if you were researching a public company), this information should supply you with enough data to complete your analysis.

EXERCISE #4:

1. Pick a product or a service you are interested in.
2. Indentify the company who manufactures the product or offers the service.
3. Follow the steps above to research and analyze the company/product/service in question.
4. Come up with at least 5 “brilliant or crazy” business ideas based on your research.

To Be Continued Tomorrow…..(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Site?)

What To Do When You Need Brilliant Ideas Google

Continuation from two weeks ago…… 

Case Study:  If you are a big fan of coffee, you should be fairly familiar with Keurig line of coffee machines, K-cups and other accessories. As of this writing Keurig Green Mountain, Inc (GMCR) generates close to $4.5 Billion in sales within this product category alone. Yet, this wasn’t always the case.

Back in 1997, the company was a simple coffee roaster and a distributor with a new product line. Keurig coffee machines and K-cups.  At the time the company was struggling with a net annualized revenue base of just $60 Million.  Yet, around 1999 Keurig’s new product line started to take off. So much so that between 1999 and 2012 the company was able to grow their sales from just $60 Million a year to over $4 Billion a year. Increasing their stock market valuation by over 49,000% in the process.

If you were passionate about coffee and had a desire to start some sort of a business within the “Coffee Industry” it would have made perfect sense to follow companies such as Keurig Green Mountain (GMCR), Starbucks (SBUX), Dunkin’ Brand Group, Inc (DNKN) and others. By doing so you would be able to educate yourself on a number of industry factors that you might otherwise be unfamiliar with.  From how many cups of coffee your average American drinks per day to the struggles of a Guatemalan coffee grower, from the market price of coffee to the energy costs associated with roasting it. Most importantly, you would have been able to determine what the leaders within the industry saw and how they were positioning themselves for future business opportunities.

Now, going back to our fast growing Keurig example.  After learning about the industry and the company, you could have had a number of great business ideas and their application towards your passion. For instance, here are just a few ideas off the top of my head…

1. Become a low cost producer of K-Cups for Keurig’s machines.  A low margin and a high volume business.
2. Develop similar machines in the early 2000’s and sell them throughout Europe, Asia or South America. Since Keurig was concentrating on the US market you would not have had any competition.
3. You could have approached Keurig directly and have asked to become a distributor of their machines to commercial outlets such as gas stations, convenient stores, coffee shops, etc…. And while Keurig was concentrating on selling directly to consumers and office environments, you could have cornered the market for retail outlets.
4. You could have gone to Guatemala and developed a direct relationship with a coffee grower to process, roast, fill K-Cups and ship to the US. Cutting your costs and undercutting your competition in the process.

In fact, you could have done either one or all of the above. And while the ideas above need further refining, this simple process shows you what is possible once you begin studying and analyzing your market. Your thinking will become clearer, your ideas will become better and your execution will be on par with the big guys. Finally, while you will still make mistakes, they will not be as deadly as going into any business without first studying the industry.

Quick Note: Be careful of what you read in various trade publications or magazines. A lot of the time authors do a very poor job putting that information together.  Plus, they might not be as well versed in the topic as they should be or they might be more concerned about hyping up certain products. Instead, once you have identified a product or a service, go to the root of the matter. The public companies themselves. Read and study their annual and quarterly reports. Look at the actual sales numbers and see what is selling very well and what is not. Which product lines are growing and which product lines are dying.

To Be Continued Tomorrow…...(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)

How To Generate Business Ideas  Google