Motivational speakers say to you, ‘ideas rule the world’. You feel pumped up and think of that ground-breaking idea that would change the world. Five years after, you discovered that your life hasn’t changed, let alone the world. Ideas are a dime a dozen, any Tom, Dick, and Harry can have an idea. Implementation is the key and makes the difference, so implement those business ideas.
Ideas are worth $0 until they hit the road. Only when you start will you know the true worth of your business idea. In this 21st Century when innovation is moving at the speed of light, nobody invests in business ideas. The true value and worth of an idea are known after you implement your business ideas. You start attracting investors when you start implementing your idea.
No matter how you twist the idea narrative, you’ll discover that some of the most important things in life don’t come with instruction manuals: spouses, kids, entrepreneurship, and businesses. You have to put in the work to know what works.
How To Implement Your Business Ideas
Let’s delve right into the different ways to implement your business ideas.
1.) Kill The Analysis Paralysis Syndrome
Planning is good, but when it impedes progress and becomes a clog in the wheel of implementation, it then becomes deadly. I know you’ve been told that when you fail to plan, you plan to fail. However, this same planning is what has made so many would-be entrepreneurs failures.
Immediately you conceive that great idea, set actionable plans, and start executing. Act on implementing your business ideas, one step at a time.
See Also: The difference between entrepreneurship and franchising.
2.) Learn How To Sell Your Vision
Selling should be a prerequisite skill to any would-be entrepreneur. More often than not, the first hurdle to jump is selling your vision. You can’t run the race alone, you need a team who believe in your vision. They will help you bring your idea to reality. Yes, I know you clearly understand your vision, but, can you clearly communicate that vision to someone in a way that they will understand and help you actualize that vision?
Also, clearly define your value proposition and know how the business will generate revenue. What makes the catch is your bottom line. Selling lofty ideas without understanding how it will achieve financial results will never get you the right audience.
One of the idea-to-reality saving hacks is simplicity. Making your idea easy for someone on the ‘outside’ to understand will help speed up the implementation and create engagement.
3.) Pick A Good Team To Initiate Growth
No matter how much of a Jack you are, you can’t be a master of all trades. You need a team to execute your idea, not just a team but a great team. After learning how to sell your vision, you need people to sell it to; a team.
Entrepreneurs want a team that is motivated, rich in academia, and with work experience. Having a team that is self-evolving, and honest is key to ensure that the company is self-sufficient operationally.
See Also: Importance of creativity and how to boost your team creativity.
4.) Conduct Market Research.
The value of your idea lies in the hands of the market; do people want it? You might think it’s a great idea, however, have you subjected it to the market forces? Will the market buy it?
Self-analysis of an idea doesn’t always equate to the same market result. Great to you, doesn’t always mean great to the market; and bad to you doesn’t always mean bad to the market. Conduct market research on your new idea. Give out samples to friends and colleagues, and get feedback. Be open to constructive criticism, and don’t take it personally – stay open-minded.
Research people who have started what you want to start and how they did it. Google is a great resource for getting such information. Sometimes, the market might be extremely competitive, but the distinguishing factor lies in your Unique Selling Point.
Don’t let the competition stop you; just find a way to differentiate yourself. Also, just because you have come up with an idea does not mean that people will buy it. Try giving out free samples or a free trial period to get some candid feedback.
See Also: B2B Digital marketing strategies that businesses need to explore.
5.) Start With A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) – Test The Waters
When you go to the market to buy suya – the popular African meat snack, the first thing the suya man does is to give you a tiny portion of the meat to taste. This leaves you hungry for more and makes it impossible for you to resist purchasing. That’s exactly what is referred to as a minimum viable product.
Test the market with the tip of the iceberg of your product. Let there be room for improvement; start with a standard version, before going premium or platinum.
Give the market the minimum viable product (MVP) of what you have to offer and take in their feedback and improve the product or service.
See Also: 10 Proven strategies to drive traffic to your website.
6.) Understudy Someone Who Has Done It Before
Learn from those who have been there, and done that. Don’t ever think you have all the answers, just because it’s your idea. The contrast between ideation and execution can be very wide; two distant ends.
You need to do some learning and unlearning. Carefully evaluate any input that you get and proceed with your own gut instinct.
7.) Learn The Technicalities
There is nothing as self-sabotaging as being at the mercy of someone, especially when you’re about to set the ball rolling. If your business is service-based and you have a lot of vendors and skilled-labor workers in your value-chain, ensure you’re not at their mercy.
You should know your onions, brush up your skills, and give the job what it demands – your ‘A-Game’. More so, being technically sound goes a long way in creating a trust value with your customers.
See Also: Benefits of teaching children entrepreneurship.
8.) Pivot
If as an entrepreneur, you launch your product or service and the market doesn’t totally accept it. What do you do? I know, huge shocker, right? Not really. One great quality every entrepreneur should have is flexibility; knowing how and when to pivot. You have to learn how to take the feedback from your customers, interpret it, and work on it. Do not sit there and do nothing; pivot and continue.
9.) Focus On Building Momentum
Take a look at all your resources and build a process flow around them. This process flow will be around relationships, networking, and sharing of resources to expand the opportunity for your ideas. Momentum has a lot to do with timing and the management and deployment of resources. Every resource counts. Know when and when not to use them so their value is optimally utilized at the right place and time.
Building momentum is critically important to convert your idea into a reality. Stay focused, stick to your plan, eliminate distractions, and neutralise the noise. Remember to manage your time wisely and never get overly excited about new opportunities that stem from your original idea. Step back, don’t commit too quickly. Understand how the dots connect.
See Also: Different personality types and how to sell to them.
10.) Joining A Start-up Accelerator
While the aforementioned steps may seem like overkill, the early days of implementing your business ideas as a startup are too critical to leave to chance. It’s a time when good management patterns are set and also a lean era when revenue is low. The more productively you start executing a plan for your business, the more likely it is that you will survive this early period.
But, with a market-tested plan and support in place, you can jumpstart the whole process. An accelerator would assist your team and make sure your idea hits the market. They set the ideas ball rolling. In Africa, there are a lot of accelerators springing up, especially in technological space.
See Also: How to write a contingency plan for your business.
Conclusion:
Finding a way to implement your business ideas is the bedrock of entrepreneurship. Testing the viability of your business idea lies strictly on the market. This is one of the reasons why I always advise entrepreneurs to look for the market for the idea first, so you don’t get frustrated along the way.
Before building a product or even writing a single line of code, always ensure that people are willing to buy that product or service. As you know, the road towards execution is steep and only the tough makes it through.
Have you ever played the analysis-paralysis game? Please share the things you have gone through in implementing your idea with us in the comments.
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One Response
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. Idea is cheap, implementation is the real deal.