How many times have you heard of a new breakthrough idea and said to yourself - wow, why didn't I think of that? We all have the ability to come up with great ideas. The ones that become successful are the ideas that fill a need or a gap - but also those that have very determined entrepreneurs behind them. Entrepreneurs who had the courage to quit their jobs and Go For It!
Today's Enable will guide you through the process of determining whether your idea is a winner. In doing so, we will focus primarily on what the market is looking for, and what potential investors require from an idea before they invest. But before we do, we begin with some positive advice and inspiration.
Don't Get Discouraged
When you decide to seriously run with your fledgling idea, you will be very vulnerable to many forces that will try to break down your resolve. In fact, most people only get to the conception stage before someone tells them either that their idea will never work, or that they do not have what it takes to be an entrepreneur - at this stage, most people give up.
My advice - don't listen. Remember when people offer advice, whether or not solicited, they predicate their conclusions on how your idea affects them. When you ask people, "what do you think of my idea?" the answer will be based on their perception of whether your idea and its implications are good or bad for them.
As you begin to pursue your idea seriously, you will be advised by a slew of people that someone else is planning to do, or is already doing what you intend to do. You may even be told that someone else tried the same thing and failed. If you are to succeed, you must learn to ignore this and remember that no one will ever duplicate exactly what you are trying to do.
With this in mind, lets look at what investors look for when they invest in ideas.
Ideas That Attract Investors
Investors look for ideas that have a market that is large enough for a company to grow to at least $100 million in value in five years even if the company makes mistakes along the way. Investors also want to see that a highly profitable company can be created around the idea. They want to know if the idea will culminate into a venture that you have always wanted to do. This will help the investor see that you are also motivated by more than just the prospect of making a lot of money from your idea.
To prove to investors that the market for your idea is truly very large, you will have to conduct market research. Enable covered this in depth in previous articles (Market Research - Free Research - Paying for What You Get). Use these articles to find the data you need to demonstrate that the market for your idea is large and growing.
Your Idea Must Be Unique
In the vast majority of cases, your idea must be unique. While huge companies are able to profit from "me too" products, entrepreneurs usually cannot. The Internet is probably the best source for initially determining whether or not your idea is unique. Your objective at the beginning is to try to find something that matches your idea as early as possible, in order to save valuable time and resources, and let you move to your next big idea.
To save a lot of time and energy, your first step should be to try and eliminate the idea right away by checking the most obvious avenue first - a potential competitor's URL. For example, if you have a new idea for a vertical portal for a sweepstakes based contest on the Web, then try something like www.iwon.com and see what happens. Right off the bat you will see that your idea is not unique and worse, that a huge conglomerate - CBS - is backing the company using "your idea." (This is an actual example from one of my clients).
Your second step should be to conduct a search on your idea using a search engine. This will give you a very good indication of whether or not someone else has already thought of your idea and how far they may have taken it. For example, you have a great idea for a new, way of diagnosing engine trouble. You go to www.savvysearch.com and search the phrase "diagnosing engine" While there are 46 hits, you are excited because you do not see any that are directly related to your idea. However, keep in mind that search engines only index about 16% of the web and that they may not index new pages for months.
Your next step is to search much more in depth. The best way to do this is to go to online automotive magazines and industry newsletters and search inside each one. If you do not know the major ones, you can find them by using a search engine. You must be thorough and search inside as many magazines as you can. You must also go to the library and search through offline magazines and other periodicals in the industry. If you still do not find anything on point you may be on to something - but you are not finished yet.
You need to start speaking with professionals in the industry, as well as with intellectual property lawyers.
This is the subject of next week's column. Stay tuned, and remember your first step is to believe in yourself - everything else will follow.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 19 October, 1999