It All Starts With I

Yes, it’s true. Every new [business] project starts with an Idea, Inspiration, and often Innovation. That’s the beauty of starting new endeavors; the energy and motivation surges through your body as you cogitate on your project-to-be. There’s a world of opportunities before you, all you have to do is plan and execute.

What I’ve come to realize in the past years is that it’s easy to have ideas, but it’s unique to have innovative and inspiring ones. In fact, it’s only recently that I’ve recognized that not all ideas should be implemented. Embarking in a new business project is a difficult yet rewarding journey – it requires countless time and energy, which is why not just any project should be chosen. In the past years I’ve had numerous ideas, some of which I actually acted on, but in the end it’s not what I was looking for. In fact, I see business much like falling in love. If there’s something that bothers you and that just doesn’t seem right, the reality is that it probably isn’t. Don’t waist your valuable time there. I understood this clearly recently when I actually had a “ah ha” moment. An idea came to me, mostly based on a novel marketing strategy – in my opinion anyhow. It calls upon innovation, creativity, technology, and above all it has the potential of making a difference; positively impacting people’s lives, something hard to come by in trying times.

So here it is, I embark in week one with what I consider to be an outstanding idea. This is the first step in developing a new product or service. Once you’ve screened your idea and certain that it follows your interests, skills, and ambitions, the next step is to embark in a creative and strategic phase that I deeply love; the concept development. While I brainstorm on the overall concept, I’ve been gathering intelligence – industry statistics. I find it very important to do initial market research as you develop your concept as it allows you to fine tune good ideas and weed out bad ones. If there’s no market for it, don’t go there. So in the past week I’ve leveraged the wonderful online library and database at University of Phoenix, where I’m currently doing my MBA. I’ve managed to find exceptional market reports and trend information for the concept I’m working on. Priceless!!!

I don’t want to break the fun so here’s a first piece of info on what I’m doing. It involves web technology, but that’s not the forefront of the project, it’s used as leverage for the business. So no, I’m not building a software business this time – for the first time. It just turns out software isn’t my first interest.