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How to devise winning business ideas… in four steps

cheat sheet by Martin MartineZ

It’s often said that everyone will have at least one big business idea in his or her lifetime. But

how do you know if your next big idea is genuinely great or a genuine waste of time?

This cheat sheet will help you formulate ideas, identify opportunities, evaluate their strengths

and take your first big step forward. Learn how to get focus and clarity.

Plus, score a bonus tip that will help you more than you might think!

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InsIghts gaIn InsIghts Into the followIng:1. “aha” Moments

2. Keep Your eyes open

3. test the Market

4. Just steal Ideas

5. Bonus tip

What are you waiting for? Grab a pencil and let’s go!

Watch the video

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what is the not-so-fReaKY UnIVeRsItY?

It’s a library packed full of resources and courses. But unlike many other membership sites for entrepreneurial business owners and operators, the NSFU is dedicated to instruction. It is about providing the steps needed to achieve an outcome. The biggest barrier to achieving any goal is knowing where to begin. NSFU courses solve that problem, by providing a clear and repeatable path. Why the unusual name? We focus on the topics that freak out even the most seasoned business operators. We simplify technology trends, online marketing, leadership principles, raising money, boosting cashflow, pitching, presenting, productizing, starting a new business or re-engineering an old business to start again. Change is relentless. Myopia will kill you. We isolate the freaky in business and un-freakify it.

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01.“aha” MoMents

Often, when an idea strikes, it comes in the form of an “aha” moment.

This can happen when you least expect it. In fact, this kind of inspiration tends to strike quite

often in the bathroom. (Surely there is research to back this claim!)

The human mind is always working. It is very good at spotting problems. These could be

weaknesses in your industry. Brilliant ideas strike when you formulate a potential solution to

one of those problems. This phenomenon happens to everyone, all the time.

But most people do nothing. Or, simply forget these ideas.

How many of your great ideas been lost to forgetfulness? Don’t let one of your inspired ideas

slip away.

To hang onto your idea, for later scrutiny, keep a record of your thoughts. Jot down these

problems and solutions, even if you don’t have time to dwell on their worth immediately.

There’s something magic about writing down an idea. The very act of writing it down brings it

to life in a more tangible way than simply keeping it in your head. Writing your ideas down also

has the obvious benefit of helping you avoid forgetting them.

aCtIon steP:Keep a notepad with you at all times. Or, use the notepad on your phone. When you have an inspired entrepreneurial idea, write it down just as soon as it enters your mind. Don’t let your next great business become “the one that got away”.

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02. KeeP YoUR eYes oPen!

Listen to your complaining customers. Customer complaints are a rich source of ideas.

Your target market is frustrated by the needs not being met in your industry.

Your next idea may well stem directly from a routine complaint lobbed at you or others in your

market. You need only pay attention to the conversations going on around your brand and your

competitors to get an idea of how a problem can be solved.

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the

unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.

Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

– George Bernard Shaw

aCtIon steP:Look for the problem and uncover the opportunity presented by its solution!

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03.test the MaRKet

Ideas are worthless if you don’t act on them!

The problem is that many people have ideas that they never act on.

To get past that problem, test the market. Spend some money to test your idea. Doing this offers

you the chance to know if your product will sell, it will help you discover how much money it

will cost you to drive traffic to the site and help you begin to build your customer database.

Allocate no more than $500 for this purpose, as follows:

· Invest about $100 to create a two page website (landing page/checkout page)

· Invest the remaining $400 on Google AdWords/Facebook marketing

· Measure how much it costs to generate incoming leads and figure out the conversion

rate

This is not as hard as it sounds. Anyone with a PC can do this.

online page-builders

To create a two page website, tryout one these online tools:

• Unbounce

• LeadPages

• Optimizely

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advertising

To advertise your two page website, put the remaining $400 into the following:

• Google AdSense

• Facebook Ads

If you have an idea for a product, but not the actual product itself, simply launch the website,

gather the orders, and present your customers with a screen that says “Sold Out! We’ll contact

you when the product is back in stock!” rather than proceeding through checkout.

It may sound strange, but what better way is there to find out exactly how many people are

willing to buy your product or service? To do this, tap into the tools listed above.

03.test the MaRKet

aCtIon steP:Burn $500! It will be the best $500 you spend, even if it is done just to help you avoid further loses. Set up a landing page, a checkout page and pay for some ads!

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04.JUst “steal” Ideas!

Look at your favorite coffee shop. It was not the first one ever in history, right? No.

But, obviously, each new coffee shop is not a direct clone of the last one. And that’s the biggest

idea of all: you do not have to reinvent the wheel.

Steve Wozniak did not invent the first computer. Thomas Edison did not invent the first light

bulb. Even Henry Ford did not invent the first automobile!

These famously big ideas were improvements on existing designs.

Yet no one would accuse any of those innovators of stealing anything. It’s because they each

recognized a need in their respective market and seized upon it. They went on to form companies

that differentiated themselves against the crowd, with great results.

And that’s what you should be doing: looking to “steal” not so much ideas, but opportunities.

Other businesses give you an idea of what works. Find points of differentiation based on

existing businesses in your market!

aCtIon steP:Pull out that notepad again! Count your competitors, identifying what they do well and what they need to improve at doing – or rather, what you can improve upon!

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let’s ReCaP!

Bonus tip: stick to what you know!!!

Don’t get involved in a business that you don’t know enough about – liking an industry does not make you an expert. The best ideas stem from your own know-how and experience. What seems obvious to you is the thing that is most valuable to your target audience.

1. “aha” Moments

2. Keep Your eyes open

3. test the Market

4. Just steal Ideas

5. Bonus tip

P.S. Before you go, here’s the promised bonus tip.

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Martin Martinez is a serial entrepreneur, responsible for building and selling the Australian Poker League and Founding Australia’s only loyalty program for business owners, The Entrepreneur Card.

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