After Office Hours Recap // 5 Key Steps to Nurturing a Winning Business Idea

Nurturing a Winning Business Idea // 5 Key Steps that Will Guide You

To succeed as an entrepreneur you need passion, dedication, and a bit of grit.

Finding your niche in today’s congested market can be tricky, so it’s no wonder 90% of all startups fail, according to Neil Patel for Forbes. 

Nearly half a million new businesses are founded and launched in one month, and the startups that make it are the ones that know how to stand out from the crowd.

For your business to succeed there are a few things and strategies that you need to put in place. From originality to creativity, coming up with a great business idea is easy; actually executing that idea and turning it into a viable business venture takes dedication and a commitment to do whatever it takes to succeed.

In our last #AfterOfficeHours session with Mercy Kyallo, Founder of Yallo Leather, she said that If you have the entrepreneurial bug, find something you are truly passionate about and explore it. Write down your business idea and ultimately develop it

Here is a recap and some of the key takeaways from the session we held last week that focused on nurturing creativity and ultimately a winning business idea

Nurture Creativity

What makes the difference between a good company, and a great one? Creativity. Fostering a culture of creativity in your business and your life will allow greater innovation, more effective problem solving, and a genuine competitive edge. 

When technology has made certain skills a commodity, it’s the creative, individual human elements that distinguish a successful business.

According to Mercy, nurturing creativity and a great business idea before starting a business is the first step to coming up with a winning business idea/ business. 

This is in the sense that if everyone is doing or getting into a certain line of business, ensure that you find a niche and create a business that stands out from the rest. This m

It’s okay to experiment and fail

According to Mercy while pursuing entrepreneurship and working on your business idea be ready to fail a number of times. In her case, she started off in agriculture and then moved to the leather industry on a journey.

Don’t be a perfectionist – if you wait for your idea to be perfectly formed, you could waste months that could be better spent testing out the “maybe ideas” that could potentially become something amazing.

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Sometimes the best ideas sound less than promising at first and only become brilliant in the execution. In 2015 you are lucky enough to be able to get an idea out into the world, for free, in a very short period of time.

So instead of shelving an idea for not being completely perfect from day one, challenge yourself to find the heart of your “maybe idea”, try it out in a short timeframe, and improve it on the ground.

Often the biggest barrier to success is the fear of taking that first step. Jump straight in, experiment, and see where it leads you.

Inspiration is all around us

Ever read the story of how, Lyft came to be? Well, growing up in Los Angeles, Logan Green spent a lot of time stuck in traffic.

When he started college at University of California, Santa Barbara, he left his car at home and started a ridesharing service on campus, one that had just six vehicles.

Green was invited to join the board of the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District while still in school, but he quickly grew disillusioned by the unsustainable economics of public transportation.

Frustrated, he left for a trip to southern Africa. The rest is startup history. Green’s company, Lyft, generated a reported $700 million in revenue in 2016

Looking abroad for inspiration can be a great place to start – you might discover a product that hasn’t yet been marketed in your local area, or you could discover a new way to present an existing product.

Inspiration for your new product or even how to modify it surrounds us, this may be as simple as sourcing inspiration from nature, or history. Inspiration comes from outside,

If you like the idea of quitting your day job and becoming an entrepreneur, that’s great but you’ll need to find something you will spend more time on than anything else in your whole life.

The idea needs to be embedded in your brain like some sort of bug that won’t go away. The idea won’t let you go to sleep, the idea will wake you up in the morning and it won’t leave your side.

Let go of originality

Many talented entrepreneurs waste time and energy trying to think of a unique business, when they should be focusing on how to be better, rather than how to be different.

There are countless businesses already in existence, so it’s very likely that you won’t be the first person to think of an idea or product. 

Don’t believe the myth that an idea isn’t a good one because there is competition. If it is a good idea there either will be competition already or there soon will be. Remember Facebook was not the first social network and Google was not the first search engine.

Keep a list of businesses that you find inspiring, then ask yourself how you could put your own stamp on that product or industry. This thinking will free you up to find more ideas than you imagine, closer than you think.

Hawk your idea and establish your business

Once you think your idea is ready start talking about it and selling it. You never know who or where your next investor is at. Long before you establish your business start by selling your idea and making people believe in your idea and buying into your vision.

If the entrepreneurial lifestyle is the path for you, you need to be ready to dedicate yourself 110% to your vision and be willing to make some sacrifices along the way. 

Focus on what makes you happy and what you’re passionate about, and with hard work, the rest will fall into place.