Eureka! How to filter and focus on an idea

Helix Nebula - Spitzer Telescope

Space...the final fron... woops... wrong topic ;) The reason you see that picture, is because there are MANY ideas out there, but only few end up shining upon greater scrutiny. It is important to focus, otherwise you'll find yourself never getting off the ground.

Here's a real story to illustrate the point. After about 40 minutes or so of brainstorming in dark rooms (they were separate rooms! Sorry ladies), we came up with a list of about 20 ideas for a new business. We were thrilled. It was one of our first times trying the whole dark room thing out, and it worked great. There's just something about a dark and silent room that just triggers your mind to think and be imaginative. Perhaps it's a subconscious desire for the mind to escape what seems to be emptiness and darkness? Who knows.

After our alarm clocks rang, we stepped out and I started to write our ideas down on a big board, while occasionally taking a deep whiff of my marker. There's just something about markers...anyone ever sniff those markers that actually smell like fruit? That was the best invention since the toilet. Yeah... TAKE THAT sliced bread!

Anyways, I digress...

We were pumped up for sure. We then took those 20 ideas, and filtered them down to 5 ideas, based on four criteria: 1) Can it make good money? 2) Is there a demand for it? 3) Is it resistant to economic cycles? 4) Is it fun? Yes...looking back, those exactly weren't the most accurate criteria to use. Each criterion was scored from 1-5, and we took the top 5 average scores.

Thankfully, we had a mentor. A real business veteran who started successful ventures in the past. We met up with him after we came up with our list. We felt like we could take on the world, that we could revolutionize the way things are done. We gloriously presented him the list of our ideas on our fancy little Excel file and proved to him that we knew how to use the =Average(B1:D1) function.

The one thing I remember the most about that meeting was how red his face got with laughter. In fact, it reminded me of a tomato with glasses and thin hair. Of course, I knew him for a while, so he had a license to laugh...for now...

The first question he asked was, "Guys, do you even have the skill set for these ideas? These are awfully complicated." He was right, we didn't. In fact, one idea we liked a lot would have needed either us or someone else who had deep experience in law enforcement and almost espionage.

Safe to say, ALL the ideas turned out to be just like that nebula above...just floating and as fleeting as gas. Sure, they look nice, but they can't do anything, not like the star in the middle. We hadn't found that shining star in the middle. It was back to the drawing board for us.

So... with that said, how can one go about filtering and focusing on a single idea? Well, there are a number of steps to do this.

1. The first step is to HONESTLY assess yourself and your partner(s) (if applicable):

• What skillsets and experience do you have?
• How much DISPOSABLE income can you put into a new venture?
• Who do you know in your network? Are they trustworthy?
  
• How risk tolerant are you? Although starting a venture is always risky, some ideas are way more riskier than others because of high start-up costs and overhead.
• Are you genuinely motivated to start a new venture? You have to have a high level of motivation and will, because starting a venture is not easy, and you need to toughen up to see it through.

2. Once you've identified the base foundation (you and any partners you may have), then you can determine what idea can be built upon that foundation. Like in the previous step, for each idea, you want to ask and answer the following questions:

• Do I actually have the needed skills to execute on this idea? If not, can I find someone trustworthy who does?
  

Trustworthiness is extremely important. Knowledge is power, and power is used. If you are clueless about an idea, then a lot will rest upon the shoulders of the person who has a clue. That gives them a lot of leverage over you...so you need to make sure you bring unique skills that the other person lacks to compensate. You also need to trust that person, otherwise you may find yourself left behind.

• What kind of need does this idea meet? What value do you provide? If your only answer is, "well, I think people will find this to be pretty cool." Don't waste your time. It has to bring some sort of value to people.

If a need is met, then there will be demand for it. How much demand, however, will be determined in the next phase. Right now, this is just initial vetting.

• Can I actually secure the resources to execute this idea?
  

I have a personal preference to try and stick with ideas with relatively low start-up costs and overhead. However, there are many successful entrepreneurs who start ventures with high costs and succeed. You just need to be realistic on how much money you can actually secure for yourself and WHERE you're going to get it.

• Where will the money from this venture be earned?
  

Notice that I didn't say "how much" money yet. That comes later. Right now, this is an initial idea vetting phase. What you need to answer in this stage is basically: Do you know how you will earn money from this?


If you can positively answer ALL the questions for any particular idea (i.e. "Yes, I have the skills for this idea" or "Yes, I can find someone, and I can secure the resources" etc.) Then it has some real potential.

Chances are, by putting all the inital ideas through this questioning process, you will end up with very few left or even just one idea. If you end up with none, then don't worry! Just go back to the drawing board. There's nothing wrong with that, it's all part of the process.

Once you've focused on one or two ideas, you're still not ready to execute on it. The next phase now is to do your homework. Now that you've identified the idea, now you need to quantify it through market research to determine its actual feasibility based on FACTS rather than assumptions.

Stay tuned for next episode. We'll discuss how to do homework on your idea to determine - factually - if it's feasible and worth the effort.