As a business owner, I am constantly having ideas for what I would like to do with my business. Most of them I will never get to. Some just need time or thought. That said, I have realized I have a pretty set pattern for my ideas. It looks something like this:
- Write it Down – I keep a nice little list of ideas of things I would like to accomplish. Whether or big or small. I like to prioritize it as best I can, keeping the things that are quick but huge gains at the top, and keeping the bigger, more timing consuming at the bottom. I’m not sure how many good ideas have been lost because of not writing them down, but I’m sure it’s at least 1, and in my mind… 1 good idea gone to waste is 1 to many.
- Plan it Out – I always try to plan my bigger ideas out for an hour or two at night. It’s exciting for me to see how far I can take a new idea on paper. It also helps me figure out if it’s a good idea worth doing. The best part is, it gets me in a notebook, which is something I’m not in often enough.
- Buy the Domain – This I will sometimes do even before #2. If I come up with an idea, and it has a really catchy name, I immediately head over to www.GoDaddy.com
and snatch up the domain for a quick $10.00. It doesn’t matter if I will ever do the idea or not… The odds are that if it’s a .com domain, your running out of time to get it.
- Talk with Someone you trust about it – Sometimes really good ideas aren’t good. The only way to see this sometimes is to tell someone else about it. The key is to tell someone you trust so that they don’t run off with your idea and take it for themselves. They best way to see if they seem interested in the idea or not… See if they try to get themselves involved somehow.
- Do it! – Some of my best ideas are sitting around because I simply lack the motivation to get it done. You’d be amazed at how many good ideas go to waste simply because of apathy or laziness.
So yeah… I really don’t know what motivated me to write this… Maybe it’s just on my mind.
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Nice post. Writing it down is the best idea. When I was writing The Onus I would carry a little notebook to jot down ideas for the strip. Now I have a series of notebooks and a sketch pad for ideas. (Not all related to humor.)