<p>How many successful businesses were founded by asking the question, &#8220;Wouldn&#8217;t it be great if…?&#8221;<br />
Then again, how many businesses have failed because the idea was pretty cool, but the market wasn&#8217;t ready for it?<br />
Or, the business plan wasn&#8217;t accurate?<br />
There&#8217;s a big gap between your cool idea and making enough money to grow a real business out of it.<br />
Your business might be red hot in the cultural zeitgeist but ice cold on delivery, and not in a good way.<br />
(Oncoming craft beer bubble, anyone?)<br />
Here&#8217;s how you can bridge that gap.<br />
<strong>Does your idea address something missing and urgent?</strong><br />
Blogger Andrew Taggart observes, &#8220;A good startup idea answers the question: &#8216;What&#8217;s missing <em>and </em>urgently needed?&#8217;<br />
It could be that there is nothing important missing in this quarter, so that idea would be no good.<br />
Or–and this is crucial–something could be missing–pseudo-missing, as it were–but not be urgently needed.&#8221;<br />
A business idea may in fact address an urgent need. It may also offer something that the local market is missing.<br />
However, neither need nor offering will automatically ensure business success. Numerous other factors influence that outcome.<br />
However, you&#8217;re on the right path if your business concept addresses one or both. Look at your competition and determine how your offering will be sufficiently different.<strong> </strong></p>
<h2>Is it something you know?</h2>
<p>Your business is at a tremendous advantage if you are also its ideal customer.<br />
That&#8217;s because your intuition will help you serve your customers and clients in a way that is most beneficial to them.<br />
A great example is Todd Greene, an entrepreneur who developed the HeadBlade shaver for men with balding hairlines.<br />
Build something you would actually use or enjoy and you automatically have two built-in advantages.<br />
First, you know why it works and the experience it offers or the problem it solves. Secondly, you&#8217;ll be able to passionately, and genuinely, sell it.<br />
This doesn&#8217;t mean you should be willing to venture into new territory.<br />
It just means that by starting a business in a field you know you&#8217;ll be at an advantage over those who are entering from other backgrounds.</p>
<h2>Think big, start small.</h2>
<p>You&#8217;ve got this big idea, but how do you translate that into a product or service that realizes your ambition? Start small and test the waters.<br />
This may mean building a prototype with a smaller test audience in mind, or, it may mean executing just one part of your larger idea.<br />
Start-up investor and co-founder of business incubator Y Combinator Paul Graham suggests this example.<br />
If you want to dominate microcomputer software first write a Basic interpreter for a machine with a few thousand users.<br />
He says that you should start small for your own sake because the risks are lower and you can build on what you learn. This is applicable in any industry.</p>
<h2>Put a Team Together.</h2>
<p>Marc Nager, co-author of &#8220;Startup Weekend: How to Take a Company From Concept to Creation in 54 Hours&#8221; talks about how to make a concept a reality.<br />
He says, &#8220;The first steps are finding a team and validating your idea. Without these two things, you just have dreamers…&#8221;.<br />
He goes on to say that once you&#8217;ve assembled the best team you can start the longer road of building your business.<br />
The right team can make or break a business project. Building and rebuilding your business team may take longer than 54 hours &#8212; but it is absolutely necessary.<br />
Finding the right people is time well spent.<br />
&#8220;The team involved can make the difference between a cool business idea that works and one that doesn&#8217;t,&#8221; says Brian Wiedemann, owner of George Bowers Grocery, a neighborhood café/beer garden.</p>
<h2>It&#8217;s not a big secret.</h2>
<p>Ideas are a dime a dozen. What matters is that you execute them, which is why you shouldn&#8217;t worry about keeping your idea a secret.<strong> </strong><br />
If you think you are onto &#8220;the next big thing,&#8221; it&#8217;s understandable that you might be overly protective of it, unwilling to share details, afraid that someone will steal your idea.<br />
Don&#8217;t be. The more advice you can get, the better. And you&#8217;ll be surprised how many people will want to help, even for free.<br />
&#8220;There are lots of benefits to talking to people,&#8221; start-up investor Chris Dixon points out. &#8220;You&#8217;ll get suggestions for improvements. You&#8217;ll discover flaws and hopefully correct them.<br />
You&#8217;ll learn a lot more about the sector/industry. You&#8217;ll learn about competitive products that exist or are being built.&#8221;<br />
There are many additional benefits. First, you&#8217;ll be able to gauge people&#8217;s excitement level for the product or service.<br />
Is there excitement, or have you just saved yourself a lot of time and money by asking around first? Sharing your idea also gives you time to refine your sales pitch as you describe the concept.<br />
Recently someone I knew wanted to get my opinion on a new business. But, he refused to email me about it. This was completely unproductive &#8212; and a bit silly.<br />
Even if your idea is amazing there are genuinely just a handful of people around the planet who will take the time and effort to execute it.<br />
Get over your fear of being &#8220;copied&#8221; &#8212; for inspiration, check out the site Betterific, which shares business ideas freely.</p>
<h2>How can I be sure my great idea is going to work?</h2>
<p>You can&#8217;t. But you&#8217;ll never know if you don&#8217;t try. Few, if any, business ideas actually survive market debut without changes and adjustments.<br />
&#8220;If it&#8217;s a bad idea, you&#8217;ll know early enough and save yourself time and money,&#8221; says entrepreneur and startup advisor Amir Khella.<br />
&#8220;You can then return to your daily job regretting nothing, and waiting for the next idea to hit you.&#8221;<br />
You can at least increase your chances of survival and success if you seek out mentors and solicit feedback on your business plan.<br />
Both of these strategies will get you out of your own head and can give you a broader perspective. Find a mentor for free online using MicroMentor.<br />
Look for local business development agencies in your area, or seek feedback from entrepreneurial members of SCORE to get started.<br />
You can never have too many smart minds mulling over your idea.<br />
In summary, the only way to see if your cool business idea is &#8220;realistic&#8221; and will &#8220;work&#8221; is to get started.<br />
Write your business plan, take the first small steps, and start pulling together the right people to move your vision forward.<br />
Your business doesn&#8217;t need to be revolutionary to make a big difference for you and your community.</p>
<h5>Featured images:</h5>
<p><span class="license">License: Creative Commons</span><br />
<span class="source">image source</span><br />
Katie McCaskey is a small business owner and freelance writer for Vistaprint, offering customized products like branded business checks and<br />
business cards to help small businesses extend their brand and connect with customers. Katie has covered marketing and entrepreneurial topics for over 10 years.<br />
Her work has been featured in business and lifestyle publications, including <em>Salon</em>.</p>

Cool Ideas And Realistic Business Opportunities
