Free Business Ideas - Events

Even though I like to talk about ideas, generating them and turning them into profitable businesses, I tend to be a little tight lipped about my own specific ideas for obvious reasons. However, I have more ideas than I’ll ever have time to execute on so from time to time I come across ideas that I want to just throw out there for all to think about or execute on. I might eventually run with the idea too, then again I might not, but the point is that sometimes ideas are better shared, especially when you know (if you are honest with yourself) that you’ll never actually do it. If that’s the case, share it with someone, or everyone! Wouldn’t it be better to see our idea come to life than to sit on it and have it never go anywhere. Karma doesn’t get much better than giving someone an idea that makes them millions or just helps them to create a business that is fun and successful enough to provide them the freedom we would all love to have.

Recently I read an article about Sheldon Adelson who started the Comdex tradeshow and then sold it to Japan’s Softbank for $862M. For whatever reason, I had never thought about an “event” as a business but apparently it’s big business for the people who put it on, not just those who are there promoting products and services.

So why not turn any event into a business opportunity. Odds are you have been to a big event of some sort, somewhere and thought your hometown could use this, or a better job could be done of the event you went to.

Events might include:
- Film Festivals
- Food and Dining Festivals
- Seasonal Celebrations
- Holiday Events
- Trade Shows (don’t forget to target a niche’)
- Charity Fundraisers

You’ll need a couple of things to make this work, namely you need to be a detail oriented person and you must know how to delegate. Event planning is time consuming and is often more complex than it looks. In fact, a well planned event looks smooth and easy to the attendees even when it is anything but behind the scenes.

Ways to monetize: Sponsors, sell space, charge admission, sell advertising, upsell “special” parts of the event (and probably a host of others I’ve never thought of).

Got ideas for making money on an event? Share them with us in the comments….
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Why New Ideas are More Important Now Than Ever

I never really got over the disappointment I expressed regarding the Behance post which suggested ideas were “an engaging, brain-spinning indulgence,” and their founder who was quoted as having said “if anything, we have a surplus of ideas. Excess ideas are our greatest cost. What we need is fewer ideas.”

What I should have mentioned in my earlier post is that ideas, the ability to filter the good from the bad, and then execute on them, is the fuel that drives the businesses of an advanced, capitalist nation forward. We have long since moved from the industrial age into the information age and without good ideas there would be no intellectual property (IP), perhaps the most valuable of all assets a company can now possess. Technological advances allow companies to adapt so quickly to changes that the only edge a company often has is their ability to exploit, protect and establish new ideas to gain a competitive edge.

A wise business owner will recognize that good ideas can flow from all of your employees, friends, associates, etc… and they can open revenue streams, expand on existing ones or give rise to more efficient ways of doing business. Idea people are immensely valuable to your success, but in order to be an effective manager you must know how to channel that energy. Failing to do so, or to simply shut down employees with ideas is proof of a failure of that manager, not proof that the ideas themselves are an unncessary distraction.

New Business Ideas

When we get stuck trying to develop new ideas for businesses, or new revenues streams for existing businesses, we can look in the cracks between what is already known for opportunities which are easily overlooked. Yes, it sounds easier than it is sometimes but one way to think about this is to step back from what you are doing and look at two businesses which may have a natural relationship or use for one another’s goods and services but haven’t gotten together just yet and figure out how to bring them together. Now, before you run down the path of thinking this is the classing “broker dealer” or “middle man” idea, which to an extent it is, I would add a catch. Rather than just trying to bring them together, look for the critical path of money and information between the two entities.

The critical path by definition should be an essential path either by virtue of being the only path or the most efficient path or the highest volume path. If it looks like a great “middle man opportunity” but isn’t in the critical path of financial or information flow, it may be a lot more work than it is worth. In that case you might be better off brokering the deal, getting your one time fee and moving on.

Additionally, you can add a value of some sort at the natural choke point in that path. It’s a lot like collecting tolls at that point. Just let them flow through you and keep them moving as efficiently and quickly as possible.

By inserting yourself into the critical path, you can build a strong business, with good finances, which improves the efficiency with which other businesses operate while putting you in a very powerful position. You can also do considerably well by carving out a very specific niche to address so that your focus is highly targeted which should ultimately make your life easier.

I’ll admit, executing this concept isn’t always easy but that is exactly why not everyone is doing it, and why if you do, the rewards can be significant.

Good Technology or a Good Idea

According to a recent article in Forbes, good ideas are more valuable than good technology.

That’s not to say that if you are an upstart company you should skimp on technology, but if you’re planning to get venture capital or expect a quick acquisition, a good idea is more significant. The fact remains that technology continues to become commoditized while it becomes ever more essential to doing business. As the barriers to implementing technologies lower, and the technology becomes easier to use, the technology itself becomes less of a differentiator and the validity (i.e. financial viability) of the idea behind the business ever more essential.

While the venture capital market continues to be difficult there is still and abundance of private equity looking for a place to grow. Before you land capital to fund your idea you can expect to be vetted on several issues. Have your house in order and prepare to be harshly critiqued on the following:

- If you are successful, how easily can competitors crash your party?
- How much does a big audience matter to your idea?
- What is the track record of your leadership?
- Do you have a business model?
- Are you focused on building a business or the exit strategy?
- …and of course a myriad of other things.

The take-away is to be sure you do your due diligence, perform market and competitive analysis, and most of all be realistic about, not married to your ideas.

Too Many Ideas?

I stumbled across this post on Behance recently which rather unfairly characterized idea generation in the following quote which first appears on the page:

“Idea generation is an addiction… an engaging, brain-spinning indulgence that must be practiced in moderation.”

That sounds downright fascist to me.

After reading the post a few times I think the intent was not so much to suggest we should restrict idea generation, though it certainly implied that, but rather was to remind us that we can get stuck in a vortex of only generating ideas and never executing them.

It is fair to say that idea generation is addictive and can be distracting, but to suggest that it is a “brain-spinning indulgence” is dead wrong. Perhaps my reaction to this article is more a matter of disagreeing with the writing style and word choice than the actual intent, which is clearly subject to interpretation. (Besides, you know what they say about good intentions).

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Here’s an Idea: Think about how you say things, especially when you publish them for the world to read. It is an exercise in learning to communicate clearly. Don’t expect people to correctly interpret things that aren’t clear.
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Ideas flow freely and sometimes uncontrollably. What we need to do is learn to focus that power, not suppress it. Further, we must execute, which means working the idea, but in doing so we will inevitably generate more ideas and again, suppressing that is a bad idea, not to mention an exercise in futility. Try to “stop” ideas from popping into your head, by the time you realize you have an idea to suppress it’s too late!

If so many entrepreneurs have experienced setbacks and utter failures because they lacked focus, tried to do too many things at once and executed poorly, how do we avoid that common pitfall and the idea “distraction-tornado” without abandoning good ideas?

By learning to focus our creativity and having an outlet for our ideas so that when they pop up in the middle of execution, we can capture them and then go back to what we were doing. Use a MindMap, a spreadsheet, or as one commenter posted a wiki, where collaborative ideas can be captured. Then get back to work. Whatever you do, when you have a good idea, EXECUTE on it (failure to do so is typically just laziness), but no matter what, don’t suppress your ideas or those of the people that work for you.

If you are a CEO or Manager don’t just be a “boss,” be a leader by giving people a constructive way to generate, share and develop ideas while you keep them on track with whatever they are executing on. (Google is notoriously good at this by allowing employees 20% of their time to work on their ideas and look where they are).

Find balance and you can have great new ideas and solid execution.

How To Kick-Start Your Creativity

It makes me laugh every time I hear someone say they are not creative or never have any good ideas. I think the real issue is that the don’t recognize their own creativity. Often, the best ideas are not some completely original, brand new “thing.” Rather, they are variations on a theme, a new take on an existing idea or a slight modification to a process or product. More money has been made from subtle changes to existing products and services than from some completely brand new invention. The odds are you see ways to improve things every single day. The real question is (and get honest with yourself here) are you willing to put in the work to develop that idea? For most, the excuse “I’m not creative” is synonymous with “I’m mentally lazy.”

Don’t get me wrong, not every idea is a bonafide moneymaker, but sometimes the most unlikely ideas do very well (Billy Bass anyone). You might go through few ideas to get to one that is financially successful but the other ideas you’ll develop along the way will start the explosion of inspiration that will make everyone else think you are a creative genius and will help you to start identifying niche markets that need your ideas. Take one idea and run with it. The next thing you know you won’t know how to shut off your idea machine.

Best of all, and here is the kicker, incremental changes in existing things are what really improves the lives of the people around you. Think about it:

- Can you make shampoo that doesn’t burn a baby’s eyes? (OK, Johnson & Johnson beat us to it long ago but the idea is they didn’t invent shampoo, they improved it).
- Can you make something more accessible to someone who is disabled? A lot of places, sites, … have to comply with making things accessible so you have a built in market.
- Can you make a home safer for small children?
- Can you make it faster and easier for a bartender to pour the perfect beer while reducing wasted beer from a keg? (Don’t underestimate the importance and financial viability of that one, your ideas don’t have to be totally altruistic). Such an idea might even spring board into a way to chill beer faster…

Those few ideas should be sufficient to get the idea across. Ideas don’t have to be revolutionary to be great but they may become springboards for revolutionary ideas and they will help you realize how creative you really are. So while you are at it (as your baseball coach would say) “stop trying to hit a homerun and just get your a$$ on first base.” Ideas that make you enough money to live on and set you free from your cubicle are worth as much or more than “the next big thing.” You’ll get to that soon enough. Walk before you run…

Company Examples:
BASF: Their tagline - “We don’t make a lot of the products you buy. We make a lot of the products you buy better.” Their whole business is improving what is already there.

Hennessey Performance Engineering: They didn’t invent the Viper but they’ll take yours and give it 1000hp (because 500ish just isn’t enough).

Assessing Ideas

When the flood of ideas for businesses starts to hit you, and if it hasn’t already it eventually will, you will be tasked with determining which ones to tackle. Getting through that process will be trying at times so here are a few suggestions to make it easier.

1) Remember not all ideas are good ones but don’t throw any of them away. Keep a running map or spreadsheet of your ideas with good descriptions. You never know when an idea has just yet to have it’s time, or might help out as part of a future idea.

2) Ask yourself honestly if executing the idea will fit the lifestyle you want. If you are the type that dreams of extensive travel and working from anywhere then starting a restaurant probably isn’t the right thing to do. You might have a great idea for one that would be hugely successful in your area but that doesn’t mean it’ll be right for you or that you will be happy doing it. Pass the idea on to someone who can and will enjoy it and do it right and be happy with a smaller but reasonable fee or percentage of ownership. And be seriously reasonable about this, if you aren’t doing the work, 3-5% is probably fair. 10% would be very generous, depending on your level of involvement.

3) Score your ideas. I created a detailed spreadsheet once to help me with this. In that spreadsheet I scored each idea on a series of criteria such as how easy it would be to execute, how much revenue it had the potential to produce, how steep the barriers to entry were and so on. I also included how satisfied I would be “doing” that idea. I then also weighted the criteria as well and came up with a composite score so I could objectively assess my ideas and see how they fit into my life. It seems a little type “A” but you’ll find that kind of objectivity invaluable. The results were somewhat as you would expect too, the easier the idea to execute and the lower the barriers to entry the overall lower the score generally was, though ideas in the middle were a little more mixed. I’ll blog the specifics of the spreadsheet next week and make it available for you to use.

Good Ideas Are Not Enough

Let’s face it, we all like to be “the idea person.” Coming up with creative ideas is fun, challenging and often exciting. But if you want to start a business that will support you, or even bring you wealth, even great ideas are not enough. We must learn to execute on those ideas and that, if we are not careful, is where the fun can end and the “work” begins. Though it doesn’t have to be that way.

One of the big problems I have with many business books and CEO interviews is that they tell us that we must constantly innovate, but rarely teach us how. Lot’s of people have great ideas but fail to execute on them. It is the marriage of those two thoughts gave me an idea (smirk), actually, it was a conversation over lunch with Wendi that sparked the idea and it is one that will help me further focus my writing for you.

My goal here isn’t just to help you get your small business up and running, though we’ll spend plenty of time talking about the “how tos” of doing just that, but rather, my ambition is to help you come up with great ideas, to share ideas and ultimately to cultivate and execute on those ideas, and all the while have a helluva good time doing it! I’m also going to pick one of my own ideas, and share it with you start to finish, in as much detail as I can stand so we can execute together.

Like most of you I have no shortage of good ideas, it’s making them real that is the challenge, and it is learning to do so, and in turn teaching how to do so, that is our commission.

The Objectivity Challenge

Many of our best business ideas will come from things we are passionate about or intimately familiar with. As we work our way through the process of narrowing down which ideas to turn into businesses we have to remain objective and turn the old cliche’ “it’s just business” against our selves in the process to realize that not every idea will be a good one, and by that I mean profitable.

The flip side is to realize that some seemingly bad ideas just need a little tweak to become good ones but if we can’t be objective about it how can we expect to know the good from the bad? I’m a big fan of numbers, they are objective whether we are or not and they will tell you a lot so do your due diligence and analyze the business not like a business owner, but like an outsider who is being asked to invest in the business. Depending on the financial and market analysis you do consider this: If based on that analysis you wouldn’t invest in that business if started by someone else, then you shouldn’t be starting it either.

Financial and market analysis don’t have to take along time and don’t have to be onerous. But they are essential to understanding whether or not you have something that will work. There are a lot of great way’s to test what will work too. I won’t rehash them here but Tim outlined them well in Chapter 10 (Testing the Muse) of 4 Hour Work Week so (again), I’ll recommend that book if you haven’t read it.

Give an idea it’s chance and don’t get caught only shooting holes in every idea you have. I can’t tell you how many ideas I convinced myself probably wouldn’t work but to he honest it was all conjecture. I didn’t’ really know because I didn’t do proper objective testing and analysis to find out. However, if you find your ideas really isn’t going to work, ditch it immediately and move on to the next idea. Learning to cut ties when something isn’t working is a valuable skill that will save you time, money and a lot of headache.

Where Do Ideas Come From?

It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get started! We’ve imagined life beyond the cubicle, read the books and thought about what we will do with all that free time! But there is just one problem… what are we going to do? Coming up with ideas is challenging for some and easy for others. The good thing is, anyone can find their way into the latter category. The biggest hurdle is often forgetting what we know and opening our minds up a bit. I fall into the latter category, so much so that I have new business ideas on an almost daily basis but don’t have nearly enough time to chase them all. Of course, not all ideas are good ones (in business terms) but once you start generating ideas it can be hard to turn it off.

So how do we get started? How do we come up with good ideas? I liked Timothy Ferris’ idea of “finding your muse” because we don’t want to start just any business. We want to be inspired and do something we will enjoy, something that will make us want to get out of bed in the morning, not just “whatever makes money.” In 4 Hour Work Week, Tim suggests a few places to look for inspiration, I’m including some of my personal examples for illustration:

1) Professional experience. This one is often the most obvious but our ideas can also seem the most daunting. Who out there has never had a job where they didn’t see something within their own company that couldn’t be improved upon? Not every idea will turn into a full fledged business but many will. (Examples: web development, IT Consulting, risk management, product management).

2) Groups or organizations you are involved with. What are their challenges? (Examples: DJCC, Sedona Conference, DFWRein, Vivaldi Patrons Circle).

3) Hobbies. This one is the most obvious, especially for all of the inventors out there (Examples: photography, SCUBA diving, hiking, graphic design, travel, wood working, cars, …)

4) Other interests. (i.e. things you are interested in but don’t‘ really constitute a hobby). (Examples: mountaineering, camping, wine, movies, …).

I would also add to that list to look at the challenges you face in your day to day personal life. Odds are there are others facing that challenge too who would benefit from your idea. How many child care “inventions” have been created by a parent who found a way to ease their routine and turned that idea to profit and added relief for a lot of other parents! However, don’t start inventing for child care if you have never had kids. Stick to what you know and your odds of success will be much greater.

All of these things can generate ideas and give you places to look for inspiration. Remember that often the best ideas come from finding a need or a problem that requires a solution. It’s far more rare to develop a solution (tool, product, whatever) that then successfully goes on to find a problem.

Another point to keep in mind is that ideas for a business can be in the form of products, services, intellectual property (IP) or a combination of all three. The point is that sometimes the solution to a problem, and hence the business idea, may be a tool (product) but may also be a process or a “way” of getting something done that improves efficiency, teaches, reduces cost, …

If you get creative and stop thinking of the world in terms of just hard products, a universe of ideas will open up to you. Then it’s on to figuring out how to make it all work, if it even will, but the point of this exercise is to just come up with ideas!

One final thought, don’t be afraid of competition or worry too much about originality. You want to differentiate yourself (particularly within a niche) but some of the greatest success stories in business have been from companies or individuals that improved upon something that already existed. Case in point, Microsoft’s first operating system (DOS later renamed MS-DOS) wasn’t invented by Microsoft, and we all know where that led.

Quick Update: Blogger Pamela Slim at “Escape From Cubicle Nation” posted a great entry on “Five Easy Ways to Discovery What You are Meant to Do With Your Life.” It’s an older entry but suggests some great outlets for answering that question that could also produce some great business ideas. Check it out.

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