Most entrepreneurs constantly come up with new ideas. Whether they are working on another project, driving, or lying in bed, their minds are constantly churning out new products, services and ways of doing things. For these entrepreneurs, the startup challenge shifts from coming up with ideas to choosing which idea to execute. There are three initial factors that entrepreneurs must consider when judging their ideas. These factors include the following: 1. Size of opportunity: A good first question for entrepreneurs to answer is whether the opportunity is big enough for them to get an appropriate return on their investment of time, energy, money, etc. If the opportunity is too small, its probably not worth pursuing. 2. Complexity of opportunity: A second question to ask is how complex the opportunity is. Specifically, how difficult will it to be to execute on the opportunity? Will it require the cooperation of other people or companies who may or may not buy on? Will it require several moving parts to function in perfect harmony? If the opportunity is too complex and/or seemingly too difficult to execute, in most cases a different opportunity should be sought. 3. Amount of funding and resources required: An opportunity must be judged with regards to how many resources are required to execute it. Clearly, if the amount of resources is too much, the entrepreneur may not be able to accumulate the resources and/or the return on investment will be reduced. For example, an idea for a new-and-improved theme park may be a great idea, but the hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of employees needed to execute it typically exceeds the resource potential of an entrepreneur or small company. Such ideas often can only be implemented by large pubic companies. Constantly coming up with exciting ideas is the hallmark of most entrepreneurs. Choosing the right one takes careful consideration, and is critical in that it greatly influences whether the ensuing venture is successful or not. |
