Having to choose a theme for an online business or website is, sometimes, the most critical of decisions you may make.One of my friends has been struggling for a while with the theme for her online business.It has resulted in her not making much progress with her goals at all.Such inertia often leads to a breakdown in interest, eventually leading in failure to launch.
Branding before business
When I first thought about working online, I struggled a bit with the theme for my business.I wanted to start a company with a vision and a mission.But I really had no clue what to start developing.I envisioned my company ten or fifteen years in future.I wanted it to be one of the biggest companies with solid foundations.I did not want to be lost or forgotten in a few years.It also gave me a platform to develop interesting new ventures.
Concepts come and concepts go.But a fundamental corporate strategy always remains.Once you build a successful website and manage to sell it off, you should not have to go back to the beginning, instead leveraging on your corporate branding to initiate other ventures.Hence focus about branding, vision and mission before you launch a business.
Steps for Idea evaluation
Once I decided to create a business of developing New Ideas and concepts, I opened myself to limitless potential and creativity.Once I let my thinking run wild, I was thinking new ideas all the time.I was so engrossed in new ideas that I was hardly acting on any of them and hence failing to take off.
I decided to put some order to my thinking.I devised an evaluation system to evaluate my ideas.I called this tool "Profitability Rating".The tool asks me a few questions about my idea and evaluates if the idea is a do-able one or not.I built this tool using principles or marketing, management, selling, project management, economics and consumer behavior, among others.
Once I had the profitability rating in place I was able to quickly dismiss the bad ideas on a summary evaluation.This has proved to be a great saving in time and investment in the long run.
I will put up the tool shortly on my site, www.profitabilityrating.com for free use.
Fail Early than late
It is wise to fail immediately than to invest time and money and fail in leisure.It helps to acid test your idea and find potential flaws in your idea.Do not start working on your idea until you have thought through it well.This will also give you a high degree of confidence about your idea and what steps would be required to make it successful.Also keep a bunch of trusted critics at hand.Believe me, if you cannot convince them about your idea, you may as well drop it for a new one.
A mix of convention with innovation
I learned this lesson the hard way.It is good to have innovation in your ideas.But the format for presenting your idea, at least till you have not branded your company, should be conventional.It helps users to understand it easily and compare it with other applications.Unless you have a lot of funds to invest in training, stick to the conventional format for presenting new ideas.
Identify Big Ideas and then identify the little steps that lead to it.
A big idea always has several little steps that lead to it.It is like a large map with only a small area visible at a distance.As you move forward, the path emerges and the destination becomes clearer.It is these small steps and corrections that will decide if you land in the New York or Beijing, in terms of strategic business planning.Always be open for small course corrections to keep yourself on track.
Be Open to Lessons
I personally believe that everyone's luck is different and therefore the same effort will almost always result in different results for everyone.But it is good to keep an eye out for lessons from other people's experiences, lest you may repeat their mistakes.
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