One of the questions I’ve been asked is “Why do you spend time writing a blog? How are you making any money?”

Well, I’ll tell you what I tell them…

If you look down towards the bottom of this page…yes, way down the bottom…scroll….

…You’ll find a Google ad.  That’s it – that’s the only ad you’ll see…

Do you know how much cash I’ve made from that so far? Less than a Starbucks coffee in a week…

So hopefully that is a hint!

I’m not in this for the money – now perhaps that makes me cracked and certifiable but I LOVE the entrepreneurial, startup, creative, building ’stuff’,  process – it is a natural, healthy RUSH! Truly! Even more so than that Starbucks coffee I mentioned.  I like helping other entrepreneurs to build amazing companies and perhaps some of the ideas in this blog can help too – but do you know what?

This blog has connected me with some really smart, driven, funny, focused, varied, interesting people – and that, my friends, is more important than getting a few hundred bucks from Google ad words every month.

So do you know how you can help? Both me and others?

Well, there are three ways that come to mind…

1) Contact me and let me know what you want to see here – I get some great emails and they help me figure out what to write about:  So – Email (through the contact me page), add a comment, whatever – tell me what would help you.

2) Add yourself to my mailing list – that way I can let you know about new postings and other good stuff, so you can decide if its worth coming back and reading an article that could help with something you may be grappling with.

3) Take this 45 second survey I just created: Click Here to take survey (then come back again to this page…)

So – virtually no ads, no affiliate links pushing you to buy something, no expensive memberships – just a polite request for you to connect so you can let me know what you need from this blog.

Is that too expensive for you? No right…so, there, top right corner – add your email and we can start the conversation…and I’ll even send you a free blueprint to help you start a business…can’t say fairer than that…

Thanks!

Andrew

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This is the third ‘Startup Techniques’ blog posting on creating and moving your own Winning Startup Idea into the real world as a fledgling Startup. 

The first posting “Product Development: Creating A Winning Idea For YOUR Startup (Step 1)” included techniques to create your own winning startup idea, and the second “Product Development: Qualifying YOUR Winning Idea For your Startup (Step 2)“ gave some tips on how to qualify the idea to make sure it’s really the one that you should be investing your heart, soul, blood, sweat…well, no need to labor the point, I’m sure you get the idea…

So what do I do next when moving a Winning Startup idea forward?

If the idea has really grabbed me, my temptation is usually to start figuring out all of the pieces that are needed to move it from idea to a real business.  This mean thinking about the people I’ll need to find, figuring out how to test the idea, how much money it’s going to need and the 101 other moving parts.  It starts to expand like one of those towel tablets you would put in the bath as a kid.

It’s at about this time when you need to figure out a few things before you really start getting carried away.

Like what? Well – Normally at the top of my list is how do I fit in with this idea? Sure, I had the initial idea but is that justification enough for driving it forward? Every day, you need to ask yourself, “Am I the best person to drive this business forward?”

What’s important is giving the idea ‘life’ – so always try to keep that at the forefront of your mind and try…(and its tough) to put ego in the back somewhere…

Products and Services tend to have a different approach – For a product let’s consider just a few of the different steps in the process from idea to real, actual product:

• Developing product drawings (Engineering Skills)
• Developing a prototype (Engineering skills)
• Prototype testing (Engineering etc)
• Determining how to produce it in larger quantities (Engineering)
• Testing the Market (Marketing)
• Determining Price Point considering the margins required by the different sales channel (Marketing & sales)
• Sanity checking the numbers (Production costs vs. price point to sales channel) (Finance)
• Understanding and selling the product into the sales channel (Sales)
• Marketing the product to retailers and the end consumer (Marketing)
• Managing the invoicing, customer service, tracking cash (Finance etc)

These are just a few incredibly broad steps on the road to making a product idea real – It’s by no means all inclusive.  The point here is that there are multiple component parts necessary to build a business whether it’s a product, service or website.  When you are sure this idea is the one, begin to map out what the idea needs and to overlay that with your own strengths and capabilities.  This will act as a pointer for you ~ it should help make obvious who you will need to find to join the team either actually or virtually.

One of the common mistakes with most first, second and third times entrepreneurs is not knowing what you shouldn’t be doing – the temptation is often to try to do it all yourself – either to cut costs or because you are so passionate about getting it done, that you take a shot at whatever the task might be, instead of looking for the expert. Your job, oh founder, is to go FIND! Find the people who know what they’re doing in each area (Marketing / Sales / Engineering etc) and if you trust that you have the right people – trust them to do their job properly once you’ve mapped out the objectives / targets.

Thankfully whether your winning startup idea is a product, service or website there are some relatively fixed ‘categories’ that need to be considered whatever the business – product or service.

Here are some of the key categories and a few thought jogging questions, there are many more:

The Customer:

• What are their needs?
• What are they prepared to pay for? How Much?
• How do they buy products like this? A store / website / telephone / television? 

Competition:

• Where do customers currently buy or go to use products like this?
• What products or services do they offer?
• How much do they charge?
• How do they sell and market their products?
• How many competitors are there?

The Product:

• What does it need to do?
• How will it be much better than what the competition offer?
• Who can prototype and build it?
• How much does it cost to produce?
• What is necessary to produce it?
• Who will produce it?

Sales:

• Where will you sell this product?
• Who will sell it for you?
• How will you pay them? Salary or commission or both? Yes, there are sales people who will work for just commission (Blog Post to come)

Marketing:

• How does it meet the customer need?
• How is it better than what the competition offers?
• How much can we reasonably charge?
• Are we looking for volume of customers or a select group of customers?
• What do customers need to know that will make them want to buy it?
• What are the ways to tell potential customers about the product?
• How much do they cost?
• Are there any ways of telling potential customers about the products cheaply?

Some of these questions may not work for your idea but most should.  As you go through them more questions should pop up. And don’t worry if you don’t know all of the answers, you won’t. Fact.

But you will probably be able to make some really good educated guesses in the areas that relate to your personal strengths and won’t have a clue in those areas that are too far out of your own skills and experiences ~ another good pointer towards the types of people you will need to go find to flesh out the idea and really start the tactical planning of “How to Launch Your Winning Startup Idea” and turn it from an idea into an actually, living, breathing Startup. But again, that is the subject of another blog posting.

I hope this posting helps. Again, questions, comments, relevant rude remarks always welcome and ‘Yes’ this posting could have included much more, in fact, it could have gone on for at least another 50,000 words but like most entrepreneurs I have a tendency towards A.D.D. and another 50K words would take a good six weeks or so to write.

Let me know where I should dive deeper and I’ll do my best! Honest!

How did you like this post? Any comments?

Andrew

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Hopefully you read the previous post “Product Development: Creating A Winning Idea for YOUR Startup” and tried one of the following suggestions for coming up with your personal ‘Winning Startup Idea’.

Just as a reminder:

1. Product Design New Application: Think of how one product or design can be re-deployed to solve other problems
2. What If?: How could a great product or business be a ‘world class’ business? How does it need to change or improve?
3. The Pissed Off Brainstorm: If only X did it this way….why couldn’t they just do Y?
4. The mashup approach

Great!  Have you found that idea that makes sleep near impossible?

THE idea that is now starting to bloom and grow in your brain whether you want to think about it or not? 

If you are reading this and even now the idea is demanding attention, then maybe you’ve actually found your own Winning Startup Idea. 

Is that all there is too it?  Of course not. This is just the beginning but it is one of the most challenging elements…

The frank reality is that the idea you’ve just conceived is at the start of it’s life and I can promise you that as you move it forward, it will shift and change to the point where when it becomes ‘real’ you probably won’t even recognize it as the same idea. 

That’s OK.

Every winning startup idea grows up eventually when it hits the real world and spends some time with it’s initial customers. These initial steps are what this post is about  — Initial steps to take a fantastic and very personal winning startup idea and make it real and ready to be shared and experienced by it’s customers.

So here it is, your very own winning startup idea – what’s next?

At this stage, I normally take a look at myself and examine whether I’m passionate enough about the idea to really grab a hold of it with both hands and push it forward no matter what. 

Stop there – Its important you consider if you are SO passionate that you will make it live…No matter what!

Any obstacle, any person telling you you’re crazy, that you may as well not waste your time, that you should stick with the safe life…that it won’t or can’t happen – know that you’ll push through it all and nothing will stop you!

There are always people who will tell you 101 reasons why your idea will fail – some of them people that love you, and don’t want you to fail but perhaps they don’t want things to change, or to risk — some might whisper “Don’t do it – play safe” even as they see your eyes glow, like they haven’t in, perhaps years. 

But this is the time when you need to decide if this is going to be the idea that you’ll make a reality.

If you are only half hearted about it now then sooner or later you’ll run out of steam and waste all the time you’ve invested…You’ll have wasted your own time (forgivable) and other people’s time (unforgivable). 

So this is usually the point where you might decide to sleep on it. YAWN!

So morning comes, the cock crows inside your head and your idea smacks it upside the head and tells it to be quiet while it pounds your resistence into mush…

OK, so you e slept on it and the first thought that pops into your head when you wake up is your winning startup idea…if even while mentally sweeping out the cobwebs of sleep your brain starts to turn over the idea and look at it from different directions, then you are well and truly hooked. Sorry and congratulations – your life may never be the same.

As you mull it over you’ll start to see how it can be made better, how it could be not just a winning idea but Great Idea.  Yippee, this is one of those ideas – one of the one’s that even if you wanted to, you can’t push side.   That mental shot of near caffeine has happened again. Isn’t life great?

So next, write it idea down and I don’t worry if its rough…you’re not going to use this document to raise money…just as a tool to develop the idea and test it out.  As you write, the idea will spiral and burst into rainbowed fragments, it will expand and become bigger and better. After time disappears as you write – you’ll eventually have  it down on paper.

Now wait…. promise to give yourself 24 hours before coming back to it.

But you’ll probably cheat…you can’t help it, a few really interesting elements come to my mind an hour or two later so add them to the document in case so you don’t lose them.  OK.  That’s it. 24 hours. Right.  So next day read it through and see what other refinements or ideas come to mind. 

Yep, the idea still makes sense.

So how do you begin to make it come to life.

Answer: by working with other people.

So who do I know that has expertise relating to this type of business or perhaps know someone who does?  Let’s take the drive through whole food deli idea from the previous post.  Who do I know that has some business experience in restaurants?  Scratching my head the honest answer in my case is ‘no one’. 

Damn it I’m screwed! 

No – hold it – there’s that guy I know who know’s someone…and the ball begins to roll forward…

You’ve run your winning startup idea by someone who understands the space and if you’re lucky, they’ve given you some more ideas, some contacts, told you about potential competitors and if there aren’t any, have probably told you you’re mad. 

Don’t sweat ‘mad’, so was Thomas Edison and Marconi in their early days. These are your early entrepreneurial days, take pride in mad…mad is better than bored and boring watching TV or surfing the internet. Sorry NBC!

If there was chemistry between you and the person who gave you your initial advice, consider cultivating that person as a mentor.  At least ask them if you can give them a call and follow up later. Be appreciative of their experience, let them know that they could be the key to your success – they actually might be. 

If they have helped you identified similar business models or competitors, make it your first business to know everything about them. What do they do, how do they do it, what do they charge and most important, what do their customers think of their product or service? See any chinks in their armor? If so great!  This tells you what you’ll need to do better to start pleasing your customers, making money and building your market.

But one person, a winning startup idea and a rough idea draft is not a business but it IS a great start – so don’t leave it there…

So what’s next?  Well you’re going to need some critical elements and no surprises what they are:

• People
• Money
• Product
• Initial Customers
• Business infrastructure
• Marketing plan / tools
• …and on

But securing those particular elements is material for the next few posts…if you have thoughts, questions, comments or rude remarks about the above, let me know.

And join my mailing list so I can update you when they are more posts and I’ll also send you ‘The Startup Launch BluePrint for FREE’.

Andrew

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I’ve have never tried to get this very personal process down in one place before.  From idea through to a real business step by step with as many of my own personal techniques and suggestions thrown in as we go. 

There are rainforest amounts of books printed about people’s startup experiences – what I’d like to try here is to write about the real techniques and steps I have been through many times before when taking a new business idea and working to move it through to a real product or service. 

Hopefully a more grounded approach than some of those ‘How to’ or ‘My experience as an Entrepreneur’ books.

Well, we’ll see. Questions and comments welcome!

So, want to start a business?

Have the necessary passion to start a new business but are unsure where to start?

Looking for that new, innovative, winning new business idea?

Or perhaps you’re waiting for divine inspiration to serve up that winning idea like money from heaven before you actually get up off that sofa and GO FOR IT. 

Sorry to burst your bubble – waiting on the sofa, won’t make it happen.  The only thing you’ll get is sofa rash!

So how do you get that divine inspiration?

You have to ‘create’ it yourself.  But maybe it’s closer and easier to get than you think, maybe you can come up with that idea today and do you know what else? Even a mediocre idea can grow and develop as you go through the process of thinking, refining, testing and, just like chipping away at a piece of stone – the beauty of what’s inside may get revealed…

Here are a few ways that work for me as a way of getting to that beauty inside – so much so that they’ve become almost unconscious processes that happen on autopilot and better yet, they’re easy.

Give them a try – and leave me your comments and thoughts if they did (or didn’t work…) for you!

When asked where my ideas for new business come from I often joke that it’s a ‘disease’, something which is uncontrolled, being delivered in the grey matter between my ears without conscious thought or a process.  That’s close, but not exactly how it happens.

Let me take you back to give you an insight into the process…

During my first interview for a role at Procter & Gamble fresh out university one interview question still sticks with me.  The interviewer passed a glass across the table and asked me to name ten uses for it.  Use number 1 was…a glass, she was unimpressed.

Use number 2 was a paper weight, (better but still no cigar),

number 3 was a lens to read small print in a document and before I knew what had happened, ten different and increasingly creative (read – crazy) uses had spilled out in the interview room. 

That process is not too dissimilar from the process you could try. This redeployment of one product idea (in my case stackable Pringles) into another product category (Fire Escape Ladders) helped me come up with the idea for my first company, X-IT Products to produce an idea I’d had for the world’s smallest, safest, strongest fire escape ladder.

A refinement on that creative free thinking is what we’ll call ‘What if’.  Find a product, web service or business that is in the space that you are passionate about and really impresses you.  Thought of it? 

What’s great about that business? What do you really like about it?  Now think about what would make it even better? That would take it from being a great business and make it a world class business.  Write down every idea that comes to you….when you feel yourself drying up, read through the list and see if that squeezes any more ideas out of you.  Take a read through that list and see if any light bulbs go off in your head – any really obvious improvements or refinements to that already great business?

The third approach that might work even better for you is what I’ll call the ‘Pissed Off’ brainstorm.  Has a product, service or business failed to live up to it’s promise?  Maybe they over sold you or your expectations were mis-aligned with the reality of the business.  Maybe they screwed up or the product was faulty. Perhaps they don’t exactly meet your need.  But who cares? You do, because this is an opportunity to figure out what the business or product needed to do to deliver on it’s promise, to meet and exceed your expectations.  And if they aren’t meeting your needs because of some flaw, figure out what needs to happen to solve it. 

Let’s try an example, I’m driving from New York to Philadelphia – it’s lunch time and I’m hungry.  Watching the signs as I travel, what are my options?  Ah, here we are – McDonalds, Wendy’s, Dunkin Donuts and a few no-brand obscure Italian restaurants. More often than not if I’m hungry enough, I’ll drive through and buy something.  But just once, wouldn’t it be good if I could get something that was healthier.  It’s true that most of these places sell salads but then the light bulb goes off!  Before Whole Foods selling organic and more ‘wholesome’ food, most supermarkets were similar. Whole Foods changed the supermarket ‘game’ – what about a motor way food joint that changes the game in the same way as Whole Foods?  A quick, drive through that offers freshly prepared, all organic, non-greasy, non-salad food?  As of today, at least on the routes I drive, they would be the only food chain of its type. Talk about cornering an underserved market. Surely not everyone want’s a burger or a slice of pizza? Is this a winning idea? Who know’s but it could make someone a lot of money if it takes off. Don’t forget my percentage if you make this one a reality!

And the last approach for today is the new business mashup approach – remember those business you thought of above? You know – those cool products or services that got your juices flowing?

So what would happen if you could bring a few of them together? Anything interesting there? How about this…take a web based service that really rocks your world and consider how it can be repacked for a growing market. Say – the Twitter community…anything coming through yet?

So, there are other ways that these ideas are created but hopefully these few are good as a start, so:

1. Product Design New Application: Think of how one product or design can be re-deployed to solve other problems
2. What If?: How could a great product or business be a ‘world class’ business? How does it need to change or improve?
3. The Pissed Off Brainstorm: If only X did it this way….why couldn’t they just do Y?
4. The mashup approach

Try these approaches and see where they take you.  Feel free to come back and post how you get on. 

Maybe then I can write an article on some ‘what to do next’ steps for your new winning idea. 

When you find your winning idea then you are already further along than most ‘would be’ entrepreneurs, now to GO an make it a reality.

And if this post takes you to that industry changing idea which makes you bazzillions…remember my cut! Its all started HERE!

And consider joining my mailing list so I can update you when they are more posts even better than this one

Andrew

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Once upon a time, there was a lonely blog – it was a nearly empty page on the internet, little more than a smiley face welcoming visitors to its little postage stamp sized space in the ether.

Then that postage stamp grew as its owner wrote more and more, until it changed from being completely and utterly insignificant and it became merely….um…if I’m honest…just ‘insignificant” – whew! Progress.

And that’s the story of, I would guess, 50% of all blogs out there – the other 49% didn’t even bother to write more and more…

Blogging is a nice idea, you create the presence, maybe you even write a few articles and when, the flood doesn’t come crashing down the virtual door…more often than not, the blog gets left to wither and die before it even really lives.

Isn’t that a little sad? Doesn’t it tell us that we need to persevere in life if we are to create ANYTHING of value? humm….

Andrew – Is there a way to change that dynamic?

No – there isn’t A Way…I believe there are a combination of ‘Ways’ – some internal and some external.

Huh? Internal and external? Could you be any less clear Andrew (Sarcastic tone dripping…)

Alright subconscious – let me explain -

Internal ways are those things you need to do within yourself…

• You need to ‘Commit’ to blogging daily or every other day for six months…
• You need to not just blog regularly but you must commit to trying not to blog about what you did last night in front of the television -
• You need, more than anything, to make it useful, interesting and valuable for your readers.
• And You need to be thinking often about how you can improve your blogs presence externally….

Which brings me to the external…

What is a blog?

It’s a collection of words and ideas, right?

Well, not exactly – its information – and information can and should be packaged so it can be consumed by the people who need that information, when they need it.

Let me show you what I mean…

The Blog Evolution / Revolution:
Day 1: There was ‘Blog’ – a written page
Day 2: Then there was Blog + Podcast (Audio – download and streamed)
Day 3: Then there was Blog + Podcast + Videocast
Day 4: Then there was Blog + Podcast + Videocast and mini- or real time blogging  (Twitter)
Day 4: Then there was BlogTalkRadio and Blogs on itunes and more

Now for all those blogging experts out there (hey – thanks for reading my blog post – I’m flattered! ) – Yes, I know that that’s not the sequence but I’m trying to make a point here…

THE POINT: Blogging isn’t just about writing great content any more…you have to be thinking about how your information digesters want to consume your information and make it available (making sure it references your blog wherever the information appears).

So consider – Do they want to read it? Do they want to listen to it? Watch it? Read an excerpt on twitter? How?

So what does any of this have to do with a “Virtuous Circle”?

A virtuous circle is a term I’m using to explain how each element of your Blog Strategy works together to create more and more momentum…and momentum can be used to create a following, a mailing list, and an intimacy with your digesters so they can tell you what they want ongoing…so you can provide even better content via your blog, via podcasting, via YouTube, via Twitter, Via iTunes…so you can create momentum, continue to build your list, connect with your….you get the idea right?

Stop there Andrew…back-up…

Blog Strategy? Er…how do I get one of those…

How? By spending some of that daily blog time on extending the reach of your blog information – And I’m not talking about link sharing here, the days when you can just focus on sharing links are longggggg gone….

No – What I’m talking about is extending and expanding the ways that your ‘customers’ can ‘CONSUME’ your information.

For example – Some elements within my Blog Strategy…

Content:
1) An attractive blog
2) Develop a strong foundation of value added content
3) Create podcasts
4) Create video

Ways to Consume:

1. Blog (http://www.AndrewIve.com / http://www.TheFundingGuru.com )
2. RSS (http://feeds.feedburner.com/AndrewIve- with all the bells and whistles)
3. Twitter (http://twitter.com/TheFundingGuru)
4. Andrew Ive iTunes channel (Search: Andrew Ive)
5. YouTube: (http://www.youtube.com/user/andrewive)
6. BlogTalkRadio – check it out!

And how do you take all of that and create a Virtuous Circle?

By bringing people back to your blog at every opportunity, continuously creating valuable and powerful content and pushing out so it can be consumed in multiple formats. And do it all over again, every day…

Creating a postage stamp in the ether is still an option but you’d be better writing yourself a postcard and putting an actual stamp on it and mailing it to yourself – than at least two people will read what you’re writing – you and the postman!

Now where can you find out about the tactical elements of a lot of the above?

I’d recommend Yaro’s blog – and here’s a link to some ‘must do’s’ for those wanting to take a look at podcasting for example:

Seven Secrets of Podcasting

If you would like to be kept updated about postings – Sign up to my mailing list. I NEVER sell or share your contacts with anyone. Period!

Here’s to Your Success!

Andrew

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What are you trying to achieve when you meet with VCs?

You may think it’s to close in on a, let’s say, a $3million dollar investment for example and you should always keep the goal in mind but there are stages when building the relationship. You need to recognized them and make sure you are delivering at each step of what I call “The Stages of Captivation”.

Why do I call it that? Because that is exactly what you are trying to do – you are trying to captivate a VC at each stage of your interaction – from the first communication all the way through to term sheets and a deal. Why?

Because you are trying to establish and build a relationship with a VC – you are trying to attract them and encourage them to want to build something great with you – it is not about the cash, it is not short term and is not a loan – it’s a relationship so you can create something worthy of both their and your efforts.

So what is the First Stage of Captivation – The Hook

Before you even get through the door…you need to hook them.

How do you do that?

By making yourself look attractive.

Most often that first touch with a VC will be from your initial introductory email or executive summary.

Now be careful – with these two tools you are NOT trying to get your entire life story into as small a space as possible – you are trying to do just what I said before “You want to Hook them”. In other words, you are trying to entice them – to wet their appetites just enough that they want to meet you.

So, focus on the business opportunity and in particular, the size of the opportunity i.e. the upside if you manage to create a company which delivers on your expectations but a note of caution – try not to use to much hyperbole – keep the fact that you are about to change the world to yourself for the moment, instead cover the industry you are focused on, the business you want to build, why you are the right team to build it – If you cover those elements I would consider stopping there – with one added element –

If you are reaching out to a few VCs (and you should) – you should consider mentioning this point within your initial pitch – Why?

Because it’s human nature –

If you are attractive and popular with others then you’ll be more attractive and popular with these VCs.

And aside from the psychology of it – VCs want to find out about attractive opportunities before their VC competition – so consider briefly mentioning “We are meeting with a select group of VCs in Sand Hill Road” for example, suggests there may be interest from other VCs too – You have begun to create an ‘Impetus for Investment Action’.

…and because of it they will be more compelled to consider your opportunity and act themselves.

So – and let me make this point very clearly – one element of the hook is to suggest interest from their competition – Why? So you can create momentum.

What do I mean?

You want them to want you. And what will create that impulse?

A great initial hook, competition and a closing window of opportunity.

Throughout the process – at the start and all the way through – subtly mention that others are also interested in your opportunity. Capitalize on human nature – being confident and showing a certain demand is critical. A note of caution – there are not many bullets in this gun – do not try to suggest competition over and over again – use those few bullets selectively and wisely.

So – that covers the First Stage of Captivation – The Hook.

I’ll cover the second stage on the next podcast.

Until then – remember establishing a relationship with a VC is a two way relationship – Always keep in the back of your mind “what can they bring to the party aside from cash? Do you like these guys? Do you trust these Guys?”

So – Thank you for listening.

Please go along to AndrewIve.com to sign up for my mailing list and get update when other Podcasts and postings are available.

Here’s to YOUR Start-Up Success!

Andrew

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