Got a big idea? Make it simple
Posted 18 March 2008 at 2:05PM by Ian Betteridge in Doing business online
As we've mentioned before the motivations for starting a business are many. Some people want to be big businessmen, where some just want work which fits in around their family.
But some start with a big idea: a product or service which they think is unique and which they think might make their fortune. And if you have an idea it's easy to get caught up in the excitement and assume that it's obviously a winner.
So how do you know if your idea has the potential to be turned into a successful business?
David Ogilvy, the business genius who more or less invented the modern advertising agency, put it very simply: "Big ideas are usually simple ideas".
If explaining your idea takes forever, then it's probably not going to be a winner. Of course, there might be a lot of information about how exactly you'll turn your idea into a company, whether that's talking about how the market is ready for it or working out how much you can charge - but at the core should be a simple idea which can be expressed in just a sentence or two. So make it simple!
Tags: bt, bt broadbandoffice, start-up, startup
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Comments
2. At March 18, 2008 8:51 PM, Niamh wrote:
'big businessmen'
Ahem?
3. At March 19, 2008 12:03 AM, J G Dawson wrote:
Good advise - Personally, I measure ideas by two short maxims I came up with as a result of experience - 'An idea is like a wave, if big enough it's sometimes good enough to surf on' backed by 'As with all inventions, you never know if an idea will work until it fails.'
4. At March 19, 2008 12:38 AM, James wrote:
Companies spend millions designing things that are very complicated - Then people in Asia and other countries take a little time to sit down to make them simpler and then produce them at a quarter of the cost and then ship them back into this country with a new name. I.e. Pear or Rasberry ???
In 1960 as a junior design engineer, one of my jobs was to strip down competitors electrical products, redesign them in a way to be able to make them simpler, cheaper and more efficient.
Perhaps Companies today might like to do this with the current new technologies.
5. At March 19, 2008 9:06 AM, Ade wrote:
Hear, Hear James!
6. At March 19, 2008 3:26 PM, J G Dawson wrote:
For anyone serious about their ideas - They might first like to make sure the idea is original and has not already been protected and as the caption says: 'Make it simple' - the reason for this should already be clear - Keeping ideas simple deters the copiests, of which there are many, and by keeping it simple pirates will find it harder to pinch your idea on price...
7. At March 20, 2008 8:10 PM, M Clifton wrote:
They tell you how you can start up your own Business and make it successfull then when it comes to it it's not that easy and keep going through all links and lots of stages betime you almost get to the end of it then you get lost and keep going round in circles with it and don't know where to start cause the instructions don't guide you through clear enough then expect you to know this and that about when your new to it you don't. That confuses me too, I'm new at this with BT and it looks quite complicated to me and didn't expect it to be easy peacy lemon squeezy. Not everything can be easy these days or then too easy life will become lazy and not properly doing things the right way round cause we'll be expecting miricles from it when it's that easy. So we can't have it the easy way of it all the time. Some clearer instructions and guidance for beginners would be helpful for first time users.
8. At March 22, 2008 1:35 PM, Anon wrote:
wow wow james. strip down the electrical products? So if I bring a Ipod or a Playstation to you, you'll help me make a cheaper version?
Gosh i would love to hear about your invenstions or rather should i say the cheap copies you made!
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1. At March 18, 2008 3:03 PM, vincent mcmahon wrote: