Putting Your Ideas to Work
One of the greatest things about being an entrepreneur is coming up with some new and interesting ideas. Most of the ideas I’ve come up with over the past 15 years never saw the light of day. It’s not so much about the ideas you don’t follow through on, it’s the ideas you do push forward on. If you have a 9-5 job, you are more or less dialed in at work and when you are off you are focused on life. When you work for yourself and the money that comes in is based on your efforts, it’s important to always be thinking and exploring new ways to generate income.
People talk about creating passive income or multiple streams of income. This is the ultimate goal of your ideas.
Not all of your income is going to be passive though. You have to work really hard to get to that point of course. Eventually, if you have a business model that generates money on its own you get the bonus of passive income. You can search all over the Internet about passive income and you will find 100 different ways people are doing it.
But before you can generate a passive income stream, you need to have an idea. Remember, just because you come up with something, doesn’t mean it’s going to work or even be worth your time. You may have to take the risk on ideas. This will also lead to failures. Although failures will come, learning from them is a big part of being an entrepreneur and growing a business.
Things that Interest You
We all have interests. Some are very simple, while others are more in depth. If you are interested in something specific, look at ways you can make money with it. You definitely need to ask yourself a few questions.
Will this idea help solve a problem? If you’ve been researching ideas and creating an online business you probably came across this question before. There are two things to consider. One – if you determine the idea will help someone solve a problem you are well on your way. Two – market saturation. Is there room for you in this market? Are there already people helping others in this particular situation/field? In a small niche, it may not be wise if the competition has already saturated the market.
Are there enough people that will use this idea? Going along with the previous question, you need to make sure there is a market. If you have a service you want to offer, make sure there are people ready to sign up. There is nothing like putting in the time and realize there is nothing there.
Is this a manageable idea to proceed right now? Maybe you are just getting started in the world of making money online. It probably isn’t the best idea to spend a ton of money to get your idea off the ground. If you can’t afford the price or time for this project it may be best to dial it back. Starting with a simple website that offers affiliate products may be a good starting point for you. Remember what I’ve said in the past, it’s not just about bringing the idea to life, it’s about marketing and selling it. This is where the real work comes in.
There are definitely other questions you need to ask yourself before pursuing an idea. If you can answer these positively, you may have found something worth investing your time and resources in.
Things that Don’t Interest You
When you are just starting out you usually want to stick with something that interests you or at least something you know about. For example, it makes a big difference if you understand cameras and wanted to do a website about tripods. Without deep research, you will find yourself with a long climb. At the same time, you may want to go after areas that don’t interest you. This is for many different reasons but one that stands out is less competition. The Internet is filled with competition. Yes, it’s good to have competition since you know there is a market, but too much and you reduce your chances of success.
I met a friend at a conference a while back and he was creating a site about beds. I remember asking him why are you going after such a boring niche. His response was, “Rich, I’m all about the boring niches and things people don’t want to create businesses around”. He knew the market was there and the competition was low. Although he had to really dig in and learn the niche from scratch it worked out in the long run. Boring is sometimes better.
Getting started can be difficult. You may want to pursue something that you have an interest in. This will give you motivation when you are still working a full-time job. Once you get a taste of success you can move onto more difficult markets.
The last thing to keep in the back of your mind is that new ideas will always keep coming. It will be up to you to make the move or not. If you have an idea you want to run by me, make sure you reach out on the collaborate page or even reach out on Twitter.
