Getting your ideas down

With everything going on in your world… mobile phones, running the house, the kids, paying the mortgage… it is easy to see the reasons why people just don’t go out setup their business and do it for themselves. With all these distractions, it’s a wonder how anyone can even think!

The main issue is to find the time to invest in to free-thought. Taking 5 minutes of your time to sit down with a tea / coffee, a few biscuits (can’t forget the biscuits!) and work out what they could do for an additional income. Some people are just naturally able to have ideas ‘ping’ in to their minds when they are walking the dog or putting on their shoes – others have a little more difficulty – but we all have the same machinery ‘upstairs’… we are just wired differently.

Firstly, decide where you wish to run an online business or something that involves premises. (If you actually want to go down the old school route of having a ‘high street’ store, then this site might be able to help you in some areas, but we are mainly geared towards the online route… where it is minimum input – maximum return!)

Secondly, take time to think ‘outside the box’ concerning your hobbies and interests. There is obviously the traditional store idea, just in a pixel form, but there are also a lot more possibilities that you can play with. For example if you are a Golfer, you are always trying to bring down your handicap and to improve your game. You could think about setting up an online community for fellow golfers to discuss issues and ways they could improve. Another great example is how the sci-fi community is using the web to create forums, general interest and communities to continue their favourite TV shows – years after they have finished. With the web… quite literally ANYTHING is possible… the only limitation is yourself!

After you have thought about this for a while, you might find it helpful to document your ideas in to a ‘Spider Diagram’ with the subject in the middle of ‘My Business Future’. The one to the left is one I borrowed from the Barnardos website (yours doesn’t have to be as colourful!) Try and put as many thoughts down. It doesn’t matter if you feel that they are ‘out of reach’ or silly in anyway, the more concepts the better.

Once you feel that you have put down all your possible businesses, and then put the diagram away for at least 24hrs. Only when you can come back to it with a fresh pair of eyes, will you be able to decide which idea is going to suit your situation the best.

Few points:

• If you have one idea roaming around your head for most of the 24hrs – that’s the one you are supposed to do.
• Also, do not throw away the diagram, over time you can add to it and almost use it as a check list of projects left to-do. (We will discuss multiple income streams later on)

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