Business ideas--If you build it, will they come?
You remember that movie, Field of Dreams, where the guy heard voices telling him to build a ball diamond? “If you build it, they will come” was what he heard. Well, he built it on his farm in a cornfield and they did come. Some players from the old disgraced Chicago “Black” Sox came and played. And so did the people in his farming community. They came to watch. So he built it and they did come.
Only in Hollywood.
“If you build it, they will come” may work in a fantasy picture but business is not fantasy. It has a hard-nosed, no nonsense kind of realism about it. And it takes more than building it to get them to come. And when building it means putting together a good idea, it takes more than that good idea to get them to come.
In my work in Ukraine, I read business plans. It is tedious a lot because most of them aren’t any good. And why aren’t they any good? Because they don’t show how they’re going to get people to come. They may have a good idea and most of the plan is spent setting out that idea. But when it comes down to showing how they’re going to get people to come, that is the shortest section of the thing. Often it’s mostly one-lined with something like “we’ll hire a sales staff to market it.” Oh really? Maybe they’ll know how to do it?
Not good. I will say this and this may go over like cold water splashed in the face: The idea is a lot less than half of a good business plan. That is, the idea is not the most important part of the business plan. Shocked?
“So what is the most important part?” you ask thinking that I just dissed all that time you spent figuring your spectacular, blockbuster of an idea out. And the answer is: How you’re going to get people to buy what it is you have to offer is the most important thing. A lot of people spend a lot of time refining and fine-tuning the idea. But if they have no clue about how they’re going to get people to come, that is, how their going to market it, then they have nothing. Call your idea a killer idea, or call it the biggest thing since Post-it® Notes, it won’t matter. If you don’t know how you’re going to market it, you have nothing.
Got that?
Only in Hollywood.
“If you build it, they will come” may work in a fantasy picture but business is not fantasy. It has a hard-nosed, no nonsense kind of realism about it. And it takes more than building it to get them to come. And when building it means putting together a good idea, it takes more than that good idea to get them to come.
In my work in Ukraine, I read business plans. It is tedious a lot because most of them aren’t any good. And why aren’t they any good? Because they don’t show how they’re going to get people to come. They may have a good idea and most of the plan is spent setting out that idea. But when it comes down to showing how they’re going to get people to come, that is the shortest section of the thing. Often it’s mostly one-lined with something like “we’ll hire a sales staff to market it.” Oh really? Maybe they’ll know how to do it?
Not good. I will say this and this may go over like cold water splashed in the face: The idea is a lot less than half of a good business plan. That is, the idea is not the most important part of the business plan. Shocked?
“So what is the most important part?” you ask thinking that I just dissed all that time you spent figuring your spectacular, blockbuster of an idea out. And the answer is: How you’re going to get people to buy what it is you have to offer is the most important thing. A lot of people spend a lot of time refining and fine-tuning the idea. But if they have no clue about how they’re going to get people to come, that is, how their going to market it, then they have nothing. Call your idea a killer idea, or call it the biggest thing since Post-it® Notes, it won’t matter. If you don’t know how you’re going to market it, you have nothing.
Got that?
posted by Scott W. Clark at 2:59 AM
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