How To Make Awesome Idea For Your Startup

One of the major challenges for many would-be entrepreneurs is coming up with their first business idea. Sadly, there is no good “idea generation” method out there. At best, some entrepreneurs get bland advice such as “just be creative.” Although given with good intentions, most advice seldom works. Instead, it just increases your frustration.

This article has a single objective:

• You’ll learn an effective method of developing viable ideas for your startup

Some background

Ever since I became an entrepreneur, the concept of generating business ideas has fascinated me. It has also vexed me, because I was bad at it.

Coming up with an idea for my own company was painfully difficult. Actually, I wish I had this method when I launched my startup ten years ago. Instead, I took the long and hard road. This experience is why I wrote about this subject in my series about college startups and why I am writing about it here.

No flash of inspiration? No worries

One of the most significant and common mental hurdles is the belief that entrepreneurs are different. They are inspired and creative geniuses, like Steve Jobs. This belief was a hurdle for me and other entrepreneurs I have spoken to. Honestly, I don’t consider myself a “creative” genius, certainly not in a “Steve Jobs” type of way.

I’ve discovered that generating business ideas does not require as much creativity as you think. As a matter of fact, most great ideas are simple incremental improvements of existing technology. Little “pure creativity” is actually needed.

Don’t believe it? Let’s look at two examples:

Apple’s iconic iPod® is considered a piece of pure creative beauty, but it was hardly a new concept when it was launched. As a matter of fact, the market had a number of competing MP3 players at the time. Apple improved the existing concept and took it to a new level. They created a device with an awesome form factor. It also had great usability and a fantastic buying experience. Thanks to those improvements, they now own that market.

Consider Google’s search engine, its flagship product. Another flash of genius from a company admired for its creativity. Well, the technology behind search engines existed long before Google was launched. Actually, long before the Internet as we know it existed. Google simply enhanced the concept by adding an algorithm that used links and other signals as ranking factors.

Key takeaway: most great companies just enhance existing market solutions.

What should your business do? Solve problems

One detail that many would-be entrepreneurs tend to overlook is that businesses have a single mission: they solve problems. And businesses that are good at solving problems often do well. It’s that simple.

Consider any successful company and you will see a company that is good at solving problems. Look at Amazon, Google, Apple, or Uber. They all solve problems well. This fact is very important when looking for business ideas.

Key takeaway: problems equate to business opportunities.

Putting it all together – Getting the big idea

We have discussed two important facts. First, most great business ideas are not inherently creative. In other words, they don’t create something out of nothing. Instead, they improve on something that exists. Second, businesses have the singular task of solving problems.

In summary, you have to look for an existing problem and find a way to make it better.

The method

The method for coming up with one or many business ideas is simple: look for problems. Spend a few weeks looking for problems. Live your life normally but pay attention. If you encounter a problem in your personal life or at work, make a note of it.

Problems can be about anything. Can’t find a cab? That’s a problem (ask Uber or Lyft). If going to the grocery store seems like a waste of time, that’s a problem. Getting ahold of a doctor is difficult. Another problem. Write them down. You get the idea.

Don’t evaluate problems at this point. Just write them down.

Take this opportunity to ask people about their own personal and business problems. They will be happy to share their problems with you. Pay attention and write the issues down.

Selecting finalists

If you follow this process for a few weeks, you will generate a large list of problems. Most of them won’t be useful. Some may interest you, and one or two may be great opportunities.

Review your list of problems and evaluate each idea against your selection criteria. For example, here are some selection criteria I use:

1. Does the problem interest you?
2. Does it affect a lot of people/businesses?
3. Would I pay to have this problem fixed? (this one is important!)
4. Do you think you can you improve it?

Check your list of problems against the selection criteria. Discard any that don’t fit. If all goes well, you should have one or two ideas left. If you were really good (or lucky) you may a few of them.

Choosing a winner

Nine out of ten times, the winning idea is obvious to you. Every so often, you end up with more than one great idea. How do you choose? Consider working both ideas concurrently for a little while.

When I was first looking to start a company I had a couple of ideas that I really liked. So, I tested both. I did some research and started small operations to test the concepts. Eventually, one concept won.

Here is an example

I will finish this article by offering a quick example of how this process works. Recently, a family member was admitted for a week-long hospital stay. During their stay, I noticed that relatives had a difficult time getting in touch with the doctor.

Day-to-day communications were difficult. The doctor would make a daily visit to the room but never at a set time. If the family happened to be there when the doctor arrived, they got to ask their questions. Otherwise, they’d have to wait until the next day.

I asked around and other patients’ families had similar experiences. This problem affected many people. As far as I could tell, it also affected other hospitals.

The ramifications of this problem are important. Bad communications with the attending doctors often lead to poor choices. This problem has been around for a while. As far as I know, no one has solved it well. The scope and the potential are huge.

Now, if this problem interested me, I would start researching it. I’d look into how other hospitals cope with this issue. I would also start thinking of solutions to improve this. After a few minutes of thinking, I came with some possible solutions:

1. Have doctors visit at a set time. Use a text message reminder to the family caretaker
2. Develop a secure patient-doctor messaging app
3. Create communication kiosks that would allow doctors and patients to exchange messages
4. Develop a system to set 10-minute conference calls with caretakers once a day

As you can see, some of these solutions represent potential business ideas. Frankly, I am not sure if any of these solutions are viable. This problem is complex. However, this example should give you a gist of the process.

11 Steps For Your Startup Online Marketing Plan Is Bound To Make An Impact In Your Business

Startup Online Marketing

For any business, marketing is an integral part. Without it, all the efforts related to the business are sure to fall flat. More so if you are a startup. It’s a difficult situation, as your target audience does not know you at all. And you need to reach out to them to spread the word about your business. The best way to do it is to use the marketing campaigns for that. If you have a website, using the online marketing procedure can come in handy.

But it’s not an easy task. The online world is evolving at the speed of light. Every other day, new trends are emerging that can help businesses stay afloat. You need to measure every step prudently to carve out a niche for your business in this highly competitive world.

So, how do you do that?

You need to follow a few steps to ensure that the marketing campaigns fetch the desired results.

1. Focus primarily on marketing
2. Be creative as well as consistent
3. Bear the right attitude towards business
4. Be focused while serving the customers
5. Have margin of error in business
6. Be technology-wise
7. Create unique and high-quality content
8. Make use of short videos
9. Be your own advertising platform
10. Integrate a blog
11. Be aware of the Latest Startup Marketing Trends

1. Let the Primary Focus be on Marketing

“Marketing first; product second”, says Rand Fishkin on Moz. And that’s just as correct an advice as it can be. You might have a great product. But until and unless you find the right market for it, the product means nothing. Same holds true for a startup. This is where the marketing becomes relevant.

Even before you debut as a startup, you need to engage in the marketing activities. It will generate interest among the people about the startup and will prepare the audience for its introduction. And once you have built a loyal customer base, you can introduce your startup. It will ensure immediate success for your business.

2. Be Creative and Consistent

No matter what you try as a marketing endeavor for your business, until and unless you do it on a regular basis, you can’t expect it to fetch any result. If you post a great update on social media for marketing your business, it can attract the attention of people. But the memory span of any person is not long enough to remember it for days together. So, you need to be post such high-quality updates on a regular basis.

Creativity is also the key to a good marketing effort. So, be that in every step you undertake. And remain assured that unique and creative efforts will never go unnoticed and unrewarded.

3. Show the Right Attitude

For establishing a startup and setting it in the right path, talent is necessary. It’s true. But that’s of course not everything. In many instances it has been noticed that companies with the most talented teams have also failed. The reason: lack of the right attitude. More than personal talent, it’s the teamwork that pays in any business.

It’s important for every person associated with the business to have a single dream – the success of the startup. Choose the right people. And for that, meet and interview them. Even a person with a not-so-impressive resume, but with the correct attitude, might turn out to be the one whom you badly needed.

4. Serve the Customers in a Focused Manner

Customers lie at the center of the business universe for any company. And when, as a startup, you have only a few who actually know what you are doing, you need to focus on them even more. Use social media platforms to connect with them directly. Serve them at real time. Answer their queries. Try to figure out the requirements of the customers.

Knowing what the customer wants will help you plan your offerings in a perfect way. And being a startup, when you do that from the very beginning, you are sure to get amazing results. Thank your current customers whenever possible and try to build an amazing relationship with them.

5. Make Mistakes, but Learn from Them

Make mistakes. It’s quite common for startups. But ensure that they do not harm your business beyond repair. Remember, every major brand makes mistakes. But it’s the business model that offers them the room for error. So, you need to run your business in such a way that even if you make mistakes, they do not have a severe impact on you.

You should be able to recover from the negative effects early enough. And being a startup, you will have enough time for that. Thus, you can make a correction, learn from the mistake you have made, and move ahead with steady steps.

6. Make Full Use of the Technologies Available

This is an age of information and technology. And regular advancements in this field have transformed the business landscape altogether. So, there’s no reason why you should not use technology prudently. In fact, all your customers are surely using them. Hence, you need to use it to remain in the race properly.

7. Use the Best Quality Content

No matter what you are promoting, online marketing is extremely dependent on the type of content you are using. So, it is essential for you to create the content properly. It needs to be unique and of the highest quality. Only then it will help your startup to get maximum exposure.

8. Use Short Videos for Marketing

There’s no way you can turn a blind eye to videos these days when you are marketing your startup online. The trend of using short videos are high these days. So, create a video with information about your business and post them in the video sharing websites. Make sure that the video is not overtly promotional. Put in stuff that might add value to the viewers. If properly made, it might even go viral, thus helping your marketing endeavors significantly.

9. Advertise through Your Own Self

One of the best ways to spread the world about your business is to turn yourself into an advertising platform for your brand. If you go out with your car often, or carry some other object whenever you visit a crowded place, put something on them to spread the word about your brand. It can be your brand name, your address, website, contact number or anything. Present it in such a way that passersby have to take a look at it. And be assured, if they take a look at it properly, they will remember it later as well. And can very much speak about it to others. This can be of great help for your brand’s publicity, as word of mouth can be a great form of marketing.

10. Integrate a Blog in the Website

Have you integrated a blog for your startup in your business website? It’s more important than you can even think of. It can help you perform the marketing tasks right from your website. Moreover, you can also add hyperlinks of different pages of your website. People will visit them from the blog itself. This will play a major role in making your business popular among your target audience, which, in turn, will drive your business forward.

11. Know the Latest Startup Marketing Trends

The marketing trends for startups are evolving regularly. And missing out on any new one means you fall behind your competitors who are practicing them. So, it’s essential for you to remain aware of all the emerging startup marketing trends. Having this knowledge will help you navigate your business properly even through rough waters, not only as a startup, but in later years as well.

As a startup, you need to focus on the marketing endeavors prudently. They can help you create a customer base and, in the long run, emerge as a successful business.

The Only 2 Good Reasons to Work for Free

If you’re like most entrepreneurs you get hit up to work for free. Someone wants to pick your brain (yes, if the contents of your brain usually have a price tag higher than a cup of coffee, then coffee a good brain picking is working for free,) or they want you speak, consult, design, troubleshoot or otherwise provide your products or services for charity, for the exposure, for the good-will or just because they don’t want to pay for it.

As many reasons as there are for people to ask you to work for free, there are only two good reasons to do it. They are equally good reasons, but you should never use the first to justify the second.

1. It’s marketing.

Every business should have a marketing budget. Benchmarks vary by industry, but let’s say you decide to budget a minimum of 5 percent of gross revenue. That may not be much money, but a lot of entrepreneurs don’t spend even five percent on their marketing efforts. 

What do they do? They network, they use social media, they take their clients to lunch and ask for referrals. They avoid spending money by leveraging their two other resources, time and energy, to make up for what they aren’t investing in dollars.

That's great, so long as they follow the same principles for their time and energy investment as they would for a monetary investment. Which means having a clear strategy for their efforts and an eye on their return.

So if doing the work for free fits your marketing strategy, and you believe the investment represents a reasonable expectation of return, then it might be well worth saying yes. Your guidelines may differ, but here the questions I ask before investing time and energy instead of dollars:

If I were spending money, how much would I be willing to invest?

Let’s take a conference, for instance, at which I've been asked to present for free. If I had to pay for a sponsorship to get in front of that audience, I’d be weighing the potential return against the investment. I’d be asking questions like, “How closely does this audience align with my most profitable niche?” and “How much impact will this exposure allow me to have on the audience?”

Based on my conclusions during that line of inquiry, I’d decide if I was willing to invest marketing dollars to promote my business at that event, and if so, how many dollars I was willing to invest. Once I know that, I can do a pretty fair calculation of how much time and energy I should allow myself to put into presenting in exchange for exposure. That raises some questions.

Do I have the time and energy to invest?

If I plan to invest dollars, I have to make sure those dollars are available without putting other financial obligations at risk. The same is true of time and energy. If doing a project is going to stretch me too thin to take care of other obligations, then I’m either going to spend money paying someone else to take something off my plate, or I’m going to short-change someone in my business or personal life. Unless this is a huge opportunity, it isn’t worth that. If it is a huge opportunity (see above) it may be worth it to pay for some assistance so that I can take the project on, even if I’m not getting paid.

Will I have to invest money as well as time and energy?

Depending on the type of product or service I’m being asked to provide, there may be hidden, or not so hidden, monetary costs as well. If I’m being asked to speak I may be expected to provide handouts. Or pay my own travel costs. Or, as I mentioned, I may need to pay additional staff to cover tasks I won’t have time or energy for if I take the project.

Is it something that aligns with my personal values and my brand?

This should go without saying, but it’s actually my first question. If the answer is no, then the other questions don’t matter. So what do I do if I go through my checklist and conclude that it just isn’t a good marketing investment?

Then there is that second good reason to work for free:

2. Just because I want to.

That’s right. Because the project is in my heart space, it gives me joy.

I hope you never work for free out of guilt. And I hope you never fool yourself into thinking you did it for the marketing when you really did it “just because.” But if you have the time, money or energy, feeling good is reason enough to invest it in anything or anyone you choose.

7 Ways to Say I Love You of your Team and your Customers!

There's a lot to be said for leaders who love their people. When employees or customers feel the love, they rarely peek over the fence to see what other companies are offering. Why would they?

If people feel secure, appreciated and cherished, they have little reason to shop around for something better.

Are you spreading the love to members of your team and your customers? Here are seven simple ways to say, "I love you."

1. Awards. 

Employee of the Month, Customer of the Month, Best Dressed, Funniest, Craziest, Best Giver -- you name it and then make an award for it. Find a reason to reward your staff and customers regularly. Who doesn't love a simple dose of recognition? This can be simple as creating a certificate or purchasing a plaque and then recognizing that special person for their awesomeness.

2. Notes. 

It takes less than a minute to write a note of recognition to someone you appreciate. A note to a customer can have a message as succinct as this: "I appreciate you. Thank you for your business." 

A message to an employee might include a thank-you for a specific task well done. Take a moment to make the effort to send a handwritten token of appreciation. It's likely to go a long way.

3. Gifts.

You don't have to spend a lot of money to give a special gift that shows someone you care. I have a co-worker who visits Starbucks daily, and he always picks up these little cards with free iPhone apps, compliments of Starbucks. He hands me an envelope full of these whenever I see him.

This co-worker knows that my daughter loves playing games on my iPad so he scoops up these free apps. It means the world to me that he's thinking about my family when he's buying his morning java. 

4. Spending time. 

One great way to say, "I love you" is to take an employee or a customer to lunch. I own a large real estate firm with more than 300 employees and sales team members. Each week I block off time for two lunch dates with my people. That way I can spend 60 to 90 minutes really getting to know what makes them special. You can quickly learn how amazing your staffers are when you take the time to listen to them.

5. Birthday salutes.

What better way to show a person you care about him or her than by marking a birthday? I'm not talking about wishing someone "Happy birthday" on Facebook where the message can become lost in a stream of dozens of others from well-wishers. I'm suggesting that you send a card or a gift.

A program that I've been using for the past five years is Send Out Cards. It's an automated system that keeps track of birthdays. Each month I log into the system to create a custom card for all my people with birthdays. I send them out along with a gift, like a package of delicious brownies or another type of sweet. One feature that I love is that if I forget to send out a card, I receive an email reminder.

6. Including families.

One of the best ways to show someone you love them is to appreciate their families. Aside from sending birthday brownies to staffers, I give them to the spouses, significant others, kids and grandchildren of my team members on their birthdays, too.

When you hire an employee, you adopt his or her entire family. Or at least that's how I see it. Therefore, showing love means extending it to the family of everyone who makes your company great.

7. Pats on the back.

Last, but certainly not least, there's the good old pat on the back. When you catch a team member or a customer doing something great, reach out by phone or visit in person to say, "You are amazing. Thank you for being you."

These modest steps can make a profound difference in your business. Of course, the greatest paradox in building any business is that the things that are easy to do are also easy not to do. These are basic ideas, yes, but that doesn't make them any less powerful when executed. 

The Art of Scaling Your Business

Growth is tricky. Whether you’re selling designer soaps or coding the next big social network, it’s tough to know when to push your company to the next level. One recent study found that 70 percent of technology startups scaled prematurely – helping to explain the overall 90 percent failure rate. What can you do to ensure growth takes place at a pace that doesn’t sink your company before it ever has a chance to succeed? Start by following these four guidelines and strategies.

Meeting Customer Demand and Expectations

One of the primary challenges with a fast-growing business is simply producing enough product or scaling a service rapidly enough to meet customer demand. This is a common problem with crowdfunding success stories or those rare, overnight marketing sensations: Customers line up by the thousands to pre-order product, then wait for weeks or months for delivery. This robs the company of its marketing momentum, and can severely damage customer goodwill. Before ramping up marketing, make sure your production can handle a potential influx of orders.

Making Recruitment a Priority

When growth is on the horizon, scaling the human resources of your organization is one of the most critical steps you can take – but it’s also one of the most challenging and time consuming. Adding personnel quickly can often lead to hasty hires of less qualified employees in order to have a “warm body” filling a seat on campus, a problem which can hamper growth, not aid it. Filling a seat is not the same as filling an actual need. Don’t get lured into the trap of hiring with an itchy trigger finger. During any growth phase, give new hires the same due diligence you would during periods of slower growth. Make use of contractors, temporary employees, and trial employment periods to help hedge your bets if you aren’t 100 percent certain about a hire – especially if they’re filling a non-critical role in the company.

Planning for a Cash Crunch

Growth costs money, and lots of it. It’s crucial to work with investors and lenders well before the growth phase hits so you can line up lines of credit or other emergency funds in order to meet payroll and fund production before cash is actually coming in. Once your bank account is running on vapors, it’ll be too late to line up contingent financing. Rapid growth also often leads companies to spend on items like meals, office equipment, supplies, and tech contracts without thinking these expenses through. Stick to your budgets and compare vendors whenever possible. In situations where you require an RFP from a vendor but are in a hurry, try requesting a quick turnaround. Proposals generated in the short term are likely to be just as competitive as those that take much longer to produce

Setting Up a Tech Infrastructure That Supports Growth

Companies managing a complex in-house technology infrastructure or providing a web-based service are likely to stumble. Don’t attempt to add servers on a piecemeal basis when growth is happening quickly. Outsource the operation to a company that knows what it’s doing and which makes managed services its business. Most cloud-based services are built to scale, so you needn’t worry about capacity or bandwidth issues when your company is growing, letting you concentrate on getting your product out the door and into the hands of your customers.

With These 5 Tips Build a Successful Business Team

As a solopreneur, you can only do so much. But as your business grows, you’ll need to expand your staff. Finding and hiring the right people will help your company become more successful faster.

Here we look at five tips that will not only help you find quality talent, but also nurture them so they feel vested in your company and want to help it thrive.

1. Know What You Need

Pinpoint exactly the skillsets you need to fill to round out your team. Each person should have a slightly different background and experience so that they complement one another. But really drill down into your needs. Do you need to hire someone who has skills in social media? What specific social sites do you need help with? The more you know about your needs, the better fit your hire will be.

Also consider what types of employees you need. Not every addition to your team needs to be a full-time staff member. You can hire part-time, intern, or freelancer if your needs in one area are less than full-time.

2. Look to Your Network

Before you hit the job boards to find your next new employees, ask your network for referrals. They’re cheaper to hire, faster to get on board, and have a retentionrate of 46% after being at a company a year. Ask your colleagues, friends, employees, family and business contacts if they know of talent that would be a good fit for your company.

3. Set Up Your Onboarding Process

The more training materials and processes you have set up, the faster a new hire will feel acclimated to your company and start being a productive member of your team. Have general training materials for your company, as well as those specific to the role you’re hiring for.

If you plan to work with a freelancer or agency, give them access to all the documents, login info and details they need to be successful in helping you.

4. Foster Team Activities

Hiring one person is a small success. Integrating them into your team is another. Make sure your team is apprised throughout the hiring process so they feel vested and connected to this new addition. Encourage communication among team members, and consider setting up a team-building activity like attending an event together or even having dinner after work.

Even if you, as the business owner, aren’t involved in the day-to-day with your team, you want to leave them to be able to build and foster their own relationships with one another.

5. Check Back In Often

A month after you’ve hired a new team member, check back to see how they’re doing. Get open feedback from them, and do your best to remove any obstacles they might be experiencing that keep them from being 100% productive.

Once you’ve done this successfully, make it your road map for future additions to your team.