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How To Make Your Business Idea A Reality

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We’ve all had that moment when we’re gathered around the coffee table, hanging out with a few friends, having a few drinks, when suddenly one of you gets a brilliant idea. The idea is shared amongst the group and you all agree that the idea could make you all millionaires! You all could finally quit your nine-to-fives, buy a house, and retire early, it’s that good of an idea. Typically, after the initial excitement wears off, the conversation often quickly changes, and maybe one of your friends wrote down the idea just in case, but it’s likely it will never get brought up again. But what if that wasn’t the end of it? So often we have these brilliant ideas that never actually see the light of day, unless a bigger and wealthier corporation comes up with it somehow, but what if we actually all had the means to create our dream businesses? While I can’t provide you with a proper investment or all the specific logistics for your particular idea, I can give you the right tips to actually making your business dream ideas a reality. 

First and foremost, one of the keys for creating a good and marketable business idea is to ask yourself: what problem does your idea solve? Consumers want a product, store, service, etc. that will be beneficial to their life in some way. Even if your idea is a simple corner coffee shop, what is it about your specific shop that makes customers want to walk into your doors every morning for their morning coffee? Maybe it’s the fact that your shop is the closest coffee shop within a five mile radius, or maybe it’s that you make homemade muffins every morning so that they’re fresh for the customers. Whatever it is, your business needs a niche that makes it special; the goal should always be to be as memorable as possible.

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If you’re having trouble even thinking of a general idea of what you want to do, make it personal. Think about your own life and current living situation and what would make going about everyday easier. Making it personal connects you on a deeper level to the idea, and will create a greater sense of passion for the project. 

Lindsay Cook, the founder and CEO of the app FitOn, spoke with Forbes Magazine about this concept:  “As a busy working mom, I realized that making it to my favorite studio classes had become seemingly impossible. When I searched online for more accessible and practical workouts, I was disappointed in the quality and lack of motivation that existed. Hence the inspiration behind FitOn.”

Once you have your idea it’ll be time to do some research. You want to research your general market, and designate your target audience. When researching your market you want to think about it in relation to your product/idea. Does it reach a broad enough audience? Is your intended market large enough to sustain the business in its entirety? What aspects of your idea should be expanded upon in order to be more relatable and usable to the general public? You also want to think about how you’re going to market yourself and sell your product; obviously this all depends on the specifics of your idea.

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Will it be exclusively online or do you want a storefront to start off? Either way, definitely make a professional website for the business to make it easily accessible to anyone. Additionally, having an online presence can include making your business multiple social media accounts; this way, your business is more likely to reach that broader audience you need. 

Before you dive fully into your idea, it’s good to get some honest feedback, validation, and tips from others on how you plan on running your business  and the product itself. Create focus groups or online forum boards in which you can present your idea to friends, family members, or even complete strangers. Consumer feedback is so important, especially when it comes to a business that you’re starting from the ground up. Your audience is your customers, so it’s important to appease to their wants.

Once you have your feedback, it’s time to take this coffee table idea you made with your drinking buddies and turn it into a reality. Running a business is no easy feat, so take your time to make sure you’re jumping through all the right hoops and crossing your T’s and dotting your I’s. Believe in your idea and have some faith that you will be able to retire early on a beach in Miami when the business finally does take off. Robert Herjavec, star investor on the show Shark Tank, recently gave Business Insider some of the best advice he’s received regarding starting a business:

“You have to have a senseless belief in your idea and yourself—almost to the point of being delusional. Remember that everyone has advice, but no one knows what you have to go through to start, grow and scale a business until they live it. Talk is cheap, but action speaks volumes.”

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How To Prepare Your Business For “Small Business Saturday”

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With Thanksgiving right around the corner shoppers are eagerly planning and waiting for one of the biggest retail holidays of the year. Once the turkey’s have been eaten and the last slice of pumpkin pie is gone, shoppers across the country get ready to wake up early and head to some of their favorite stores in an attempt to get a great Black Friday deal. Black Friday, however, is just the beginning of an extended weekend of shopping deals. Cyber Monday takes the title of second most recognized holiday shopping affair, however, one that is often overlooked is Small Business Saturday. A Saturday that’s meant to remind consumers everywhere that while they’re shopping at retail giants for the holidays this year, don’t forget about the hard-workers that make up local small businesses. Supporting your local small business is especially important during the holidays, while retail in general tends to boom during the holiday month, small businesses are often disregarded in terms of shopping, when superstores and online retail giants have taken over. 

Owning a small business is something that you should pride yourself greatly in. Running an entire establishment and keeping up with modern retail trends can definitely be difficult, but millions of Americans are out there doing it and succeeding. There’s many ways that these businesses can keep up a modern and fresh image, especially during this major shopping weekend, to really draw customers in. 

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Store design, graphics, and branding is obviously so important to catching the consumers attention. The holidays give small business owners another great opportunity to do a mini “re-branding” of their businesses aesthetic, and doing so will draw in the attention of holiday lovers everywhere. If you own a store front property, don’t be afraid to invest in some lights and other festive decorations to engulf the outside space of your business. While tedious, holiday decorations in general evoke a very “homey” and euphoric reaction in customers and will draw them in to see what kind of holiday specials you’re offering. The same goes for interior design, don’t be afraid to make your space festive with some little pre-lit Christmas trees, ribbon, twinkly lights, and glitter, glitter always helps. Even if you just have customers coming in to take photos of the amazing decorating work you’ve done, that’s free publicity right there, so don’t be afraid to do what you need to do in order to get the most foot traffic. 

Social media presence is a major requirement for owning a small business in this age. Your online presence is how you advertise, especially if your business is locally based. If you don’t have any sort of social media profiles for your business, definitely make a few! Especially for the holiday season and Small Business Saturday (SBS), you can turn to your platforms to inform your following of all the great SBS sales you have going on. Word spreads the quickest when it’s done through digital communication, so don’t hesitate to join the digital age, especially when it comes to your business. 

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In preparation for SBS, you also want to ensure that all lines of communication relating to your business are up and running. Telephone lines are cleared, internet access is set up, and you have staff ready to answer any customer questions in a quick and efficient matter. Relating to technology, you want to ensure any digital devices that you use to run your business are set up and in working order before the holiday weekend rush. If you know for a fact that you’re likely to get major foot traffic at one point or the other during the day, maybe invest in an additional “Square Terminal” that can simply be plugged into your phone (or employee’s phones) to take care of credit card transactions with customers, (assuming you’re in some sort of retail industry). Running a small business as smoothly as possible during a holiday retail weekend will stick with customers, and most likely lead to word spreading about all  the great deals your having. 

Finally, ensure that you and your team are ready and prepared for this holiday season. Employee’s tend to feel residual stress from the holiday’s in general that they bring into the workplace, and understandably so. The holidays in general can cause a whole slew of emotions and stresses to occur, be the leader they need you to be and ensure everyone that you’re a team and will work together the whole way through. Bringing in some holiday snacks might keep morale up as well. So whip out the cookie mix, Christmas lights, holiday ads, high-speed internet, and get ready for another successful year in the books of running a successful small business. And good luck this Saturday!