A lot of us have entrepreneurial minds and don’t even realise it. However, for those that do realise it and have a brain full of ideas whizzing around at all times, it can be pretty frustrating if you’re not sure how to act on them. Unfortunately, simply having an idea isn’t enough. You have to be able to create something larger and more sustainable out of said idea in order to make it a success. So how can you turn your big ideas into a reality? Read on to find out more.
Have an Idea of What You’re Trying to Accomplish
First off, you have to know what it is that you’re actually trying to accomplish in the first place. It might sound obvious, but without an end goal or concrete idea in sight, the idea floating around your head remains just that – an idea. A lot of the time a good way of thinking of your idea for business is that it’s the answer to a problem. So figure out what problem that is, and why it needs to be filled. Sometimes it takes being truly objective, and taking your heart out of the situation in order for you to see things clearly. Take a step back, and imagine you were a consumer. Look at the service it is that you are offering, and think “would I actually pay for this?”. It can be so easy to get lost in your ideas and become attached to them, that you forget to look at it from the outside. If you can make an effort to do this throughout your venture, you’re far more likely to be successful.
Find Your Target Audience, and Market towards them Directly
The next thing you need to do is find out who your target audience is and make niche edits to your content in order to attract the right consumers. When finding out who your target audience actually are, you have to ensure that you then go on to have a very clear idea of them. For example, what’s the general age range, location and financial situation of the people you’re looking to be your consumers? Once you know these things you have a much clearer vision of how you’re going to go on to market your content, and therefore your overall idea becomes automatically more rounded. Knowing who your target audience are and not knowing can be the difference between making or breaking your idea, so do your research and do it thoroughly.
Look at Your Target Audience. Is it Big Enough to Sustain Your Idea?
The next thing to think about is the size of your target audience. Of course it makes sense to find a niche so that you know exactly who it is you’re targeting your content towards, but if that niche is so specific that it’s literally just a handful of people, then chances are it’s not enough to sustain your idea for an appropriate amount of time. Likewise, it also doesn’t have to be something that absolutely everyone feels that they must have. It just has to be desirable for a large enough audience so that your product or idea can sell on a longer term basis.
Create a Sample
Before going into the fully fledged development process, why not make a protype of whatever it is you’re planning to sell, and allow potential customers to experience it in a smaller sense to see what they think? Fully launching an idea or a business is a big risk because of the finances involved. If it pays off, then great you could be making it all back, but if not, you could find yourself losing a lot of money. Therefore, either by creating a sample of a product or a presentation of your pitch and showing it to potential consumers, you can gage how interested people actually are in said idea and therefore know whether it’s worthwhile to develop it fully. This could work on a trial and error basis, so feel free to do as many different samples as you like and develop it from the feedback you’re given.
Funding
Last but not least, when you’ve done all of the above, you’ll of course need some funding. Although there are some small business loans available, a good place to start is by looking to the people you know. Pitch the idea to them and see if they’re interested in investing. Look at crowdfunding options too, and even host a fundraiser. Get creative when it comes to getting the funds, because they don’t often come easy – but it could be worth it in the end.
