Source: http://thisisindexed.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/card2325.jpg
So in week 1 and week 2, you prepared your mind to take on the task of creating a new venture. Now, it is time to start creating the new venture that will make this your Breakout Year!
I often get questions from clients about the process of creating ideas that lead to real life businesses. Generating ideas – good, actionable, lucrative – ideas is difficult, but fortunately there are some resources and techniques that are available to us to make the process easier. You can learn about virtually any industry you like for FREE, just by searching the web. There is no excuse for NOT being able to generate ideas! I hear people whinning all the time about not being “creative” enough to generate new ideas. If that is your attitude either stop reading or go back to week 2 and internalize it – it is good for you man ! You don’t have to be creative to come up with something that people will buy – just be stupid or better yet be dumb.
Source: What Matters Now by Seth Godin
The trick here is to let your mind go wild and come up with as many ideas as possible – I will show you some techniques and methods later. Whatever you come up with just write it down and move on to the next, do not erase and or edit, we will work on that in a future lesson. DO NOT ERASE your ideas, keep them, you never know you may end up coming back to them, even the ones you think are stupid right now.
Most people edit because they believe that they will be judged and that fear drives them to inaction. It is funny, but as I was writing this particular part of the course Seth Godin wrote about this particular fear. FYI, if you have not already signed up for his RSS you should – GET IT. I get an email everyday from his blog and his daily posting are always insightful and filled with some great gems, trust me. Needless to say it is probably the first thing I read every morning.
Here is his post on fear of bad ideas:
Fear of bad ideas
A few people are afraid of good ideas, ideas that make a difference or contribute in some way. Good ideas bring change, that’s frightening.
But many people are petrified of bad ideas. Ideas that make us look stupid or waste time or money or create some sort of backlash.
The problem is that you can’t have good ideas unless you’re willing to generate a lot of bad ones.
Painters, musicians, entrepreneurs, writers, chiropractors, accountants–we all fail far more than we succeed. We fail at closing a sale or playing a note. We fail at an idea for a series of paintings or the theme for a trade show booth.
But we succeed far more often than people who have no ideas at all.
Someone asked me where I get all my good ideas, explaining that it takes him a month or two to come up with one and I seem to have more than that. I asked him how many bad ideas he has every month. He paused and said, “none.”
And there, you see, is the problem.
Source: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/12/fear-of-bad-ideas.html
Ok, I am assuming that you are ready to get going on generating ideas (if you already have an idea expand on it); you don’t have the fear of being judged, you are in a safe place to really open your mind to what is possible and finally that you are prepared (if you show this to anyone) for someone to call you stupid and dumb, or shower you with tons of praise. Personally, I have had a ton of very bad ideas, some I will share later, maybe 
. But I don’t fear the thought of them being considered stupid or dumb.
So without further ado, here are some of the techniques I use to generate ideas – feel free to build on this list:
The Copycat Method
This is one of the easiest ways to generate ideas and is a good starting place for people who don’t think they are creative enough to come up a business venture. The premise here is to look at a good or service that is being sold in one market, perhaps another country, and adapt it to fit your market. There are tons of examples of this, look at the guys that manufacture and sell knock-offs of designer handbags and scarfs. I don’t condone it but they took a product that was meant for a certain class of folks (market 1) and created a low cost alternative (market 2). Now can you think of something that you saw in another market that can be adapted for your market.
Think of your last vacation, think of the businesses, products and services that were unique to that region. Can you do something similar in your market? There is nothing wrong with this if you aren’t encroaching on any other company’s intellectual property. You will just be the first mover in your market and that can be a tremendous advantage to you.
Following The Money
This is one of my favorite methods for a few reasons: 1) You get an understanding of how “smart” people are thinking about trends and the viability of certain business models, the future of commerce, and buying patterns, 2) you will more than likely create something investors would be interested in investing in. By focusing in on establishing a business where investment dollars are already flowing and possibly creating a unique product or service in that space, you can lock in potential investors in the future. By contrast focusing on industries or opportunities that investors don’t like will probably enable you to access investment dollars.
VCs and other private equity investors are becoming more vocal about their strategies and are sharing publicly their view on emerging trends. Even if this does not help you generate any ideas it is good to know where early stage investors are putting their money. Here is an article written by Fred Willson, a VC and primcipal at Union Square Ventures, where he discusses where he is looking for opportunities this year - http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2010/01/areas-of-interest.html
What’s Important Now?
Trends are always important to watch; there are tons of resources that speak to some of the emerging trends in business and society. Here is a good place to start for 2010:
Google Trends is also a good resource for following what folks are searching for online. You probably do it all the time but when you have a problem that you don’t have an immediate answer for you probably go and Google it. Well there are probably other people out there who are having the same issue or trying to solve a similar problem and those “searchers” could be the market for your new product or service.
Google Trends shows how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages. The horizontal axis of the main graph represents time (starting from some time in 2004), and the vertical is how often a term is searched for relative to the total number of searches, globally. Below the main graph, popularity is broken down by region, city and language. It is possible to refine the main graph by region and time period. On August 5, 2008, Google launched Google Insights for Search, a more sophisticated and advanced service displaying search trends data.
Problems & Passions
Source: What Matter Now by Seth Godin
Ever see those late night infomercials for the ShamWow, Snap Capps or the Strap Perfect. I know you have. I am sure that the first time you saw those products your reaction was something like -” Man that is so simple, I could have thought of that”. Well the truth is, you could have. Those inventions are products of pain and frustration caused by some of life’s daily annoyances. I am sure that there is something right now in your house that you wish would work better, or perhaps there is some task that you wish was easier to execute. Well start thinking about what those problems are because if you have a problem with a similar task or product other people are probably having the same issue and would pay money for a product or service that properly addressed that problem.
Last week we also talked about being passionate and for that segment of the lesson we looked at a video of Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV. Gary is obviously passionate about wine and he has done well building a business around this passion of his. As you probably found out Gary is also passionate about building businesses and social media. Right now he has his hands in a ton of different ventures, some he invested in and some he started with other partners and they are all centered around those three passions of his – wine, business development and social media. What is your passion? Whatever it is, chances are there are people out there who are passionate about it as well. Let’s say you are most passionate dressing your dog up in fancy doggy clothes. Could you start a dog grooming and shopping business or a doggie clothing line for celebrity dogs? Sure you can, I am definitely one of those people who thinks that it is possible to make money on your passions. You just have to put in the time and effort and be creative. So start making a list of things you are most passionate about and start thinking about business you can build around that passion.
My Google Reader & My Alltop
I use Google Reader to aggregate a lot of blogs that I like to read; it is like a daily newspaper I get to read everyday without worrying about getting ink on my hands. Here is a link to the items I have shared on my Google Reader - http://www.google.ca/reader/shared/01726619218819367366. Some of the articles are interesting (or not) but all of these posts inspired some thought in me, and perhaps gave me some ideas about a present and or new venture. I would recommend setting up Google reader to aggregate information from blogs that interest you (if you have not already) Bloggers usually write about problems and or issues, so I see my Google Reader as a goldmine for ideas for businesses, one that pays daily and is constantly being renewed. Also I would go to Alltop to setup your own account, here is mine - http://my.alltop.com/jarelcockburn.
Weird Ideas
It is always fun to see the types of businesses folks come up with. Below are some of weirdest businesses in the US. Perhaps this may spark something in you or give you a few ideas. At least it may give you a good chuckle.
Afterlife Telegrams of New Athens, Illinois
Service for contacting the dead. Terminally ill patients memorize messages and deliver them when opportunity permits.
Alibi Network of Chicago
In a perfect world, you wouldn’t have to lie to your spouse/boss/parents about your whereabouts Friday night. In this imperfect world, these guys have your back.
HappyBalls.com of Cumming, Georgia
A million-dollar company that makes a single product: foam balls for car aerials.
Barefootlist.com of Salt Lake City
Members create and track lists of things they want to achieve before they die.
Climax Gentleman’s Club of New Alexandria, Pennsylvania
Drive-through strip joint.
Cuddle Party of New York City
Runs events at which adults “explore communication, boundaries, and affection” by donning pajamas and getting physical. Ix-nay on the naughty stuff.
eNthem of San Francisco
Writes full-length corporate theme songs. The ultimate in “please hold” music!
Find the rest of the list on inc.com @ http://www.inc.com/print/64
Other People’s Bad Ideas
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. It is truly rare that people talk about their bad ideas but when you have the opportunity to hear successful entrepreneurs talk about their bad ideas listen up. If you actually get someone to talk about their bad ideas ask them why they did not go through with it or even why they thought it was a bad idea. This sort of probing can reveal some interesting information about certain markets, how an entrepreneur evaluates his own ideas and some of the key things he/she looks for in a good idea. It can also provide you with ideas as well. It may be the case that there is another way to accomplish the task their solution set out to execute or another way to solve the problem they are trying to solve, you never know.
Jeremy “Shoemoney” Shoemaker is regarded as one of the top, if not the top, authority on interenet marketing. He is often very honest and open about his business, the good stuff and the bad stuff. He is in fact famous for posting an image of a check he received from Google adsense.
Needless to say that was a few years ago but he is still doing well. A couple of years ago, in true Shoemoney form, he wrote about his top 10 worst business ideas. I have copied the entire article here for your viewing, thanks Shoemoney for the authority to do this. You can visit his site – www.shoemoney.com.
FYI, if you want to learn more about how to make money online check out his Shoemoney System. Click here for signup and some vids - he is launching it soon so get in while you can…
Here is the full article, let me know if this sparks any good ideas in your head.
My Top 10 Worst Ideas To Make Money
Posted September 4th, 2006 by Jeremy Schoemaker
I think I am about 5 for 500 when it comes to successful ideas vs flops. I just watched a documentary about my neighbor Warren Buffett and he talked about how you should brag about your failures and be humble about your successes. I think my new years resolution in 2007 is to be way more humble. Do not think I have some golden touch or something that everything works out great… its just the law of averages.. try enough stuff and something will stick.
Anyway I came up (in about 10 minutes) my top 10 worst ideas to make money that totally were a waste of time and effort (and money in some cases).
And also BTW you cant read this post if you know me in real life and k thx…
10 – FireFox Forum (firefoxforum.com) – I purchased this site on digitalpoint ($800) after getting some inside information that FireFox was going to team up with Google on a per download affiliate program. Well all that happened and I think I made about 50$ the first year. FLOP
9 – BabyCalc.com – If you were about to have a baby you could go on this site and punch in some numbers then it would email you as your baby was growing and let you know what was going on… “like 10 days until you should be able to tell the sex of your baby!” or “Babys heart beat starts today” ect.. stuff like that.. I paid to have the backend developed and the site was about 95% completed (about a 1500$ investment).
Then a very close friend of the family had a miscarriage about 15 weeks into her pregnancy and told us about how she had signed up for all these baby websites and now they keep emailing her stuff and she breaks down and cries every time…. I just wanted no part of that… FLOP
8 – Pimp My Blog – I thought this was going to be teh win. I mean… you want to pimp out your blog right ? I registered pimpmyblog.org but it was burning my ass that someone owned pimpmyblog.com. I hate making a site when I do not own the .com. Sure you can do good without owning the .com but they are always going to mooch off of your hard work…. so I HAD to own it and after about 3 weeks of haggling with this guy I paid $2,000.00 for the domain.
I made a forum with Vbulletin and had big plans to implement wordpress templates and all kinds of cool blogging tools but just never got around to it =p. FLOP
7 – Omaha-Used-Cars.com – Now here we go! This is easy. Just make a used car site and charge dealers a .25cent per car listing fee right ? ehhh none interested… FLOP
6 – SMS Text Dating textdating.com/texting.com – I was soooooooo sure this one was going to be it! The concept is simple basically you subscribe to this dating website. Make a profile then you could send a message to the person from the website to there mobile phone without having to know there phone number. I had this totally done and nobody every signed up… FLOP
5 – St. Marry’s Bar & Grill – Ok this has nothing to do with the internet. After the Hooters closed down in Lincoln I tried to re-open it then when that did not work out I thought about making a restaurant called St. Marrys where it was like a church and the waitresses dressed like catholic school girls and like the nuns would be the managers and spank the waitresses if they were bad?!? Yes I know bad idea and I never really pursued it…. I like in one of the most conservative catholic communities in the country so no way it would fly… and yes i know im going straight to hell.
4 – 2 Topless Chix In A Ferrari Cross Country
What would get more looks then a brand new ferrari f430 ? what if 2 topless girls were driving it cross country ? what if you could buy advertising on the car ? seemed like a good idea… then it did not.
3 – Ads Or Not
Simple concept. There is 5 ads on a webpage only one of them is NOT REALLY A AD! Each time you successfully spot the fake ad you get some money built up into your account. – I had issues finding advertisers who were down for this =P FLOP
2 – ShoeMoney SEO Contest
I thought it would be fun contest to see if someone could outrank me for shoemoney. Id like to not relive that.
1 – ShoeMoney Petroleum Company -
(I cant believe im actually telling these in public)
Ok Follow me here -
I want to purchase a Gas Station and Give away Free Gas
The catch is like the gas would come out really slow and also you would be limited as to how much you could get per week. (Like max 50 gallons a week).
How do I make money ? EASY – I would setup paintball guns around the gas station with webcams that would let people from the internet take shots at the people filling up there cars with gas. You could charge per shot or a xxxx amounts of shots per month for a set fee. PROBLEM – I talked to a city council member about this and he told me there was a “no flying ordinance” or something rule within city limits however I could maybe do it in the country…
Anyway….. thats all for now.
Source: http://www.shoemoney.com/2006/09/04/my-top-10-worst-ideas-to-make-money/
Not satisfied yet? Here are a few more resources:
Squidoo
http://www.squidoo.com/creatingideas
http://www.squidoo.com/creative-techniques
Questorming
http://pynthan.com/vri/questorm.htm
Twitter Lists
http://listorious.com/Scobleizer/founders
http://listorious.com/tags/business
http://listorious.com/ducttape/smallbiz
http://listorious.com/Jason_Pollock/rising-stars
Assignment 3
The assignment this week is very simple, create a list of as many new business ideas as you can. Use the methods and resources above if you need some help generating ideas. Lastly, as I said above, don’t start editing yourself just yet. If it comes to your mind just write it down; no matter how dumb or idiotic you may think it is.