To be or not to be
by Jon on 28/03/06 at 1:43 pm
6 comments
That is the question that I face nearly every. I’m talking the psychobabble stuff; I’m talking about all of the ideas that I have for new businesses. Wild, wacky products, amazing concepts, fantastic models: They all swim around my head consistently. Well, the swim around in this euphoric state only until I speak about them.
We as a team want to start loads of businesses; however we often get stuck on deciding on whether an idea is good enough to make the grade. So we banter about it, we put forth ideas and questions, scrutiny is mixed with optimism, and in this my mental orgasm ends abruptly. What seemed to work in my head, doesn’t survive the coffee-time banter.
What we are left with is this question. "How do we decide whether a product or concept has the legs to make it to a sustainable business? We’ve come up with a couple of criteria that we think each proposed business should match up to, in order to be approved.
Here are a few of them:
- We would have to want to buy it or make use of it ourselves.
- It would need word of mouth value, to stimulate referral marketing.
- It would have to be of interest to the age group between 20 and 40
- It would need to be a stand-alone sustainable business concept.
- The profit margins would need to be 40% or more.
- There would have to be favorable supplier negotiations.
I wanted to open it up to the floor, to see what the masses thought. So tell me, how would you guys determine if a potential business idea is worth the time, effort and money? Let me know what you think…
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def
Mar 28th, 2006
Well, one of the important factors I think is Longevity…
You can’t come up with a idea that will only sell for a day (unless it’s worth your effort just for that day or week)…
You would have to think about the residual demand, i.e. is it a passing fad or a real need that has been and will continue long enough that it is worth your initial input.
Sound OK?
Jon
Mar 28th, 2006
I think that’s a very good point.
Thankx for your thoughts.
Sophia Lindop
Mar 29th, 2006
I think that the only way one will know is if you give it a real good shot! I also think that one should ask, “How will this add value to another person’s life?” Like, will you be saving them time?
But, bottom line, I think that, if one thinks long enough, there are a gazillion reasons why not to do something. I prefer the jump-in-boots-and-all approach (which many would classify dumb) – if there are 10 reasons why it can’t work, perhaps there are 100 reasons why it can!
…forever the optimist! Keep that mental orgasm going!
steve
Mar 30th, 2006
i had this idea to sell meat cards.
Thats right, birthday cards made of meat. It works like this:
You sell a preprinted thick plastic vac seal pack to the butcheries – mainly in supermarkets. They package their meat in these packages and sell at a slightly higher price than regular packaged meat. You are shopping for meat for a braai for your mates birthday, and hey presto you find the ultimate south african mans brithday card, and once he’s read it you crack it open and stick it on the barbie!
I recon it fits all of your criteria, but everyone i told thought i was joking, it was the worst idea they had ever heard? the question is could it work?
* We would have to want to buy it or make use of it ourselves. -Check
* It would need word of mouth value, to stimulate referral marketing. – check twice
* It would have to be of interest to the age group between 20 and 40 – check
* It would need to be a stand-alone sustainable business concept. -check
* The profit margins would need to be 40% or more. -check
* There would have to be favorable supplier negotiations. -not too sure that this means, but i’m sure there are ways to get good prices on thick vac pack materials and plastic printing?
maybe it’s a joke, maybe not?
Jon
Mar 30th, 2006
nice one steve. I think that’s brillaint. I suppose another part of this discusion is how original can an idea be, in order for it to work. Is there such a thing as a too original idea?
Bear
May 4th, 2006
I think that entrepenuership is not entirely about finding a new product ,
It’s about – out the box thinking – and the guts to take any product and
make it happen , without big corporate backing.
And 90% of the time it should be about taking exsisting products / services and doing them in a way that hasn’t been done before.
Most young people spend too much time try to create new ideas instead of innovate old ones.