The Best Idea Ever

The Best Idea Ever:

You wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, bolt out of bed, and head for your notepad (or fire up your computer) to jot down the best business idea that has ever been theorized. Yeah, you and a million other people.

Don't let this get you down. Millions of Americans think of the most unbelievable ideas—such as the remote control hair dyer or the lip balm supposedly attracts the opposite sex. The reality is that almost none of these ideas come to fruition, not because they’re not truly good ideas, but because the visionary behind the idea generally does not have the skills, drive, or resources to actually make it come to life.

Feeling discouraged? Don’t be. It happens to everyone. Even I’ve experienced ideas that didn’t quite work out as planned when implemented.

On a business trip to Las Vegas a few years back, I was definitely out too late the night before an early morning flight. Half asleep and maybe drooling a little, I was slouched over in the very uncomfortable chairs in gate 3B when I had what I thought was an epiphany. Bing! An idea that was going to help me market my products and services better than any of my competitors in the industry. I even knew the name, the EARN program. EARN is the clever acronym I developed for the Entrepreneurial Advantage Residual Network. My company name is Advantage Payroll Services, so it fit perfectly.

I thought the idea seemed original—at least for my industry—so after catching a few hours sleep on the flight back I immediately got to work turning my vision, blurry as it may have been, into reality.

My team and I came up with a budget, marketing ideas, and special events to get independent sales reps that were selling services complementary to ours to offer our payroll product as an add-on to their services. Our first event debuted to great attendance and we generated significant interest, with the right people signing up for the program. We held a simplified training for those that met our requirements and made sure they were prepared to represent Advantage in the best light in the marketplace. We were set to take the region by storm with legions of agents armed with the ability to help business owners and create a residual income for themselves.

At first we had nearly 30 professionals signed up from various industries and it appeared we were poised to be a force of nature, burying our competition, forcing them to sell their businesses to us for pennies on the dollar and making our big public competitors take notice.

Screeeech! Wait a minute. Why are we not bringing in any deals? Where are all our sales? Why can't we get this incredibly simple concept to work the way I envisioned it? Simple. I miscalculated.

I did not take into account that the majority of the individuals we signed up for the EARN program were good people, just not the right people. They had stronger commitments to their primary job, which produced the majority of their income, and some of them turned out to not have the connections or influence they thought they had. It also turns out that business owners don't want to buy payroll service from someone that is “kind of” in the business. They want to purchase from top line experts who they trust to know the ins and outs of the payroll industry, such as the experts that I have on as full time staff members and who have been diligently learning their craft for years.

The experiment did not flop completely. While I spent approximately 80k on the program, I did find one absolutely fantastic EARN representative that works independently but full time selling our services. He had many years experience in the industry and has helped pay for the investment I made in the program many times over. We just started working with another individual that is partnered with an accounting firm and is a perfect fit for what my initial intentions were.

So, what are you going to do with your best idea ever? Here are some tips so you limit your mistakes with new ideas or concepts:

1. Think it through. Not just high level, like many type A personality folks do. I mean dig deep, get to the core of what you’re trying to do and thoroughly lay out the steps for proper implementation.
2. Talk to the marketplace. You don't need to hire a market research firm. Do your own study of the landscape. Talk to your clients, friends, and business associates about your idea and get their feedback. This is a great way to gauge if your idea is good, or if it’s good enough to work.
3. Curb your enthusiasm. No, not the Larry David show. Make sure your exuberance does not get the best of you. Being gung-ho and charging forward with your idea is great, but temper your expectations when launching a new product or service.

You may have the best idea ever, or you might not. Keep the ideas coming and never stop jumping out of bed in the middle of the night, even if it bothers your spouse. One night you might just create a life altering, world changing idea. I haven’t yet, but I'm working on it.