When the flood of ideas for businesses starts to hit you, and if it hasn't already it eventually will, you will be tasked with determining which ones to tackle. Getting through that process will be trying at times so here are a few suggestions to make it easier.

1) Remember not all ideas are good ones but don't throw any of them away. Keep a running map or spreadsheet of your ideas with good descriptions. You never know when an idea has just yet to have it's time, or might help out as part of a future idea.

2) Ask yourself honestly if executing the idea will fit the lifestyle you want. If you are the type that dreams of extensive travel and working from anywhere then starting a restaurant probably isn't the right thing to do. You might have a great idea for one that would be hugely successful in your area but that doesn't mean it'll be right for you or that you will be happy doing it. Pass the idea on to someone who can and will enjoy it and do it right and be happy with a smaller but reasonable fee or percentage of ownership. And be seriously reasonable about this, if you aren't doing the work, 3-5% is probably fair. 10% would be very generous, depending on your level of involvement.

3) Score your ideas. I created a detailed spreadsheet once to help me with this. In that spreadsheet I scored each idea on a series of criteria such as how easy it would be to execute, how much revenue it had the potential to produce, how steep the barriers to entry were and so on. I also included how satisfied I would be "doing" that idea. I then also weighted the criteria as well and came up with a composite score so I could objectively assess my ideas and see how they fit into my life. It seems a little type "A" but you'll find that kind of objectivity invaluable. The results were somewhat as you would expect too, the easier the idea to execute and the lower the barriers to entry the overall lower the score generally was, though ideas in the middle were a little more mixed. I'll blog the specifics of the spreadsheet next week and make it available for you to use.

Labels: ideas