The 7 secrets of turning great ideas into great business models

The 7 secrets of turning great ideas into great business models

Profit and success come from being Consistent. The problem of being consistent in the work and the approach you have to running your business lies not in better routines, but in having clearer Purpose. Then implemented routines and processes help you deliver on that intention and help you to turn great ideas into great business models.

If you run your own business, or you’re thinking of starting up new business, a common problem you will face is having too many ideas and a lack of focus on developing those ideas into detailed business models that create profits.

You’re not alone – being a entrepreneur is great, because you see opportunities everywhere. But it’s also a burden, because getting those ideas to work and having the confidence and time to figure out how to make them real is a challenge. Especially when you’re already in business delivering what you already sell to your customers or doing your ‘day job’.

No matter what your ideas are, a simple way to make sense of these and get them underway is to follow these 7 secrets to success:

1. Every idea is a good idea – to be a success you need to back yourself – there are no stupid ideas even if it sounds ridiculous (remember someone invented the pool noodle).
2. You don’t need to be an expert in everything to bring your idea to life – but you do need to engage and be willing to pay for experts to help you – or the chances of failing will be very real (remember: if it’s valuable it’s never free).
3. Plot the idea into a bigger picture – If you ran a business that did all those ideas and variation of ideas, how would each business model connect and support the others? Whatever you’re thinking, think bigger – don’t limit yourself to your immediate location or country, the world market is accessible to you.
4. Set aside time to work on each idea in detail progressively – The chance of you getting a week of solid time uninterrupted to flesh out each business model is unlikely for most people, so make a plan to chip away at each aspect of each business idea over a period of time. Building a sustainable business is a marathon not a sprint.
5. Get help fleshing out your ideas – The role of a business coach or consultant is to help a business owner get all the confused information out of their head and onto paper. The process should give you a map (plan) for each area of the business (financial, operational, sales and marketing and people/resources). You should also have worked out all the potential income streams for the business, both active and passive, and milestones to work toward achieving goals for each business model.
6. Double your budget – When you’ve created a detailed cost budget for your business idea, times it by 2 – Why? Because getting new ideas and businesses off the ground is always far more costly than an optimistic business owner expects, and its better to expect the worst and hope for the best. It will also help you to be sober in your judgement about whether the rewards will well and truly outweigh the risks.
7. Eat the elephant piece by piece – Decide to focus on the best ideas first and then develop these as your priority. You can slowly chip away at the others but you can’t do too many things well at once and it’ll take you just as long but be a far less productive and enjoyable process if you try to do everything at the same time.

Before you embark on the development of your a new idea clear the barriers and tighten up your existing business model and personal plans so that you have the time and head space to explore new ideas.

That brings us back to being Consistent – Consistency comes from having good Processes – Processes come from having a clear Plan – having a Plan comes from being Purposeful and Intentional about your business, and being purposeful turns great ideas into great business models.