Many of our best business ideas will come from things we are passionate about or intimately familiar with. As we work our way through the process of narrowing down which ideas to turn into businesses we have to remain objective and turn the old cliche' "it's just business" against our selves in the process to realize that not every idea will be a good one, and by that I mean profitable.

The flip side is to realize that some seemingly bad ideas just need a little tweak to become good ones but if we can't be objective about it how can we expect to know the good from the bad? I'm a big fan of numbers, they are objective whether we are or not and they will tell you a lot so do your due diligence and analyze the business not like a business owner, but like an outsider who is being asked to invest in the business. Depending on the financial and market analysis you do consider this: If based on that analysis you wouldn't invest in that business if started by someone else, then you shouldn't be starting it either.

Financial and market analysis don't have to take along time and don't have to be onerous. But they are essential to understanding whether or not you have something that will work. There are a lot of great way's to test what will work too. I won't rehash them here but Tim outlined them well in Chapter 10 (Testing the Muse) of 4 Hour Work Week so (again), I'll recommend that book if you haven't read it.

Give an idea it's chance and don't get caught only shooting holes in every idea you have. I can't tell you how many ideas I convinced myself probably wouldn't work but to he honest it was all conjecture. I didn't' really know because I didn't do proper objective testing and analysis to find out. However, if you find your ideas really isn't going to work, ditch it immediately and move on to the next idea. Learning to cut ties when something isn't working is a valuable skill that will save you time, money and a lot of headache.

Labels: ideas