Here’s the simple strategy for keeping you from getting washed away in the tides of innovation all around you:
- Observe what’s happening around you in your world and see what people are buying.
- Come up with 3 ideas that get people to buy.
- Build a solution and sell it to one customer.
- Observe their reactions carefully.
- Iterate and tweak the customer experience with your offering.
- Keep experimenting with new ideas and repeat.
If you are a person that needs the sure thing, go into working for the government or accounting. The marketplace is not the place for you.
With the ease of creating what we want, connecting with the world and trying out our ideas, your ideas will obsolesce at a rapid rate.
But, it’s an exciting and low risk time for entrepreneurs. The tools are there. We just need to see your ideas play out and you have to be committed to the process of idea generation and experimentation.
Some of those ideas will materialize into enterprise plays and exit strategies. Very few will, however.
Most of the ideas you experiment with may materialize into microbusinesses that cash flow and build an audience. From there, you can segue your offering by experimenting further and watching your tribe carefully to meet more desires.
The strategy is not hard to implement. Having the vision and focus to see your ideas through is the hard part. That’s the catch with innovation and uncertainty. While everyone else is waiting for something to happen, you can get the lion’s share reward by making something happen. Then invite those along that are waiting to be part of it.
What idea can you experiment with today? How can you put forth a low risk approach and see what people do with your idea?