GO FROM
IDEA TO INCOME ?
It’s easy to come up with an idea, but how do you go from idea to income to launch out into the world. There are only 3 ways ::
- How can I get customers?
- How will customers pay me?
- What do I charge customers and what value am I offering them in exchange for this payment?
You must be able to answer these questions before you start!…
Otherwise it’s just a dream without any way of making money right now because you haven’t created a plan. The strategy behind this plan is simple: Create your product or service & then show people how you will help them solve their problem!
The more you understand the value of what you’re doing for your customers, the easier it will be to find them.
That’s why I say “create first then proceed to monetize”.
When you have an idea that helps people solve problems, makes their lives easier or better in some way… this is where you start. Once you have an idea about what might help them, you ask yourself these questions:
- Who would benefit from my idea?
- How much are they willing to pay?
- What is my unique selling proposition (USP)?
The more research you do here, the better idea you’ll get about how much demand there will be for your product.
- Who are these people?
- Are they in a specific industry or job role that I might not know enough about?
- Do they want to solve this problem themselves or do they need help solving it?
- How easy is it for them to solve this particular kind of problem on their own (or with their current resources).
Once you have an idea of who would benefit from your service / product and what you could offer them – now it’s time to come up with an action plan.
Let’s go from IDEA TO INCOME.
#1 Write out your Action Plan Checklist so you can check off each item as you complete it!
#2 The next step is to start thinking about how you’re going to meet your customers and let them know about your product. What are their behaviors, who do they trust? Start by figuring out where your people hang-out. Be a part of the communities they’re a part of, read the blogs & newsletters they subscribe to, follow them on social media platforms that fit with who you think your demographic would be interested in what you have to say.
This is also known as ” Inbound Marketing “. Inbound marketing does not mean spamming people! It means being helpful, creating content that matters and helps solve problems for those people who really need it / can benefit from it.
#3 Write out your sales & marketing plan. What are the top 3 things you need to get rolling? Hire someone, create some kind of landing page , invest in some advertising or social media ads, etc… based on what you learn about your customers and how they find / purchase products or services similar to yours.
This is where you focus on driving traffic that will convert into customers! Your customer might be looking for a solution to their problem by searching Google – so it’s up to you then to make sure that when they search for “how do I solve this problem” – that your website shows up first in the SERP’s (search engine results pages) . Drive interested parties from these pages to your website & make sure in exchange for their contact information (for potential customers) you give them something of value!
This might be a free report on solving the problem they’re looking to solve or sign-up for your free email course on DIY solutions.
Finally, any good marketing campaign includes tracking how well things are working – so once you’ve set up Google Analytics on your site, start tracking what keywords people are using when they arrive at your site.
#4 Once you have all of that figured out it’s time to use all that great new knowledge about your customers and apply it into creating the right product or service offering for them. You must do this before going further! If you don’t know who would benefit from your service and what they will pay for it…how can you go and sell them something?
Finally, it’s time to launch your idea into the world! You’ve tested your product or service, you know who it’s for and what problem (s) they need solved, you understand how much they are willing to pay & where they hang-out.
Now it’s time to start letting them know about what you do. This is the time to invest in some new business cards , brochures or something that will catch their attention (see my blog post on designing a colorful business card ). If someone interests in learning more about what you offer – make sure you leave something behind with them besides your business card!
The top 3 things NOT to be doing:
#1 Don’t let this process drag out too long.
#2 Don’t be afraid to change your business model as you go along and learn about who your customers are, trust me it’ll help.
#3 Don’t just launch into the world with a flop – make sure you have a comprehensive marketing & sales plan before going ahead because you should never launch anything without one! If you think this sounds like a lot of work – well, yes it is…but if you want to make money from your idea, then put in some time now and get started on making that happen for yourself!
Last thoughts: I hope this article helps those of you looking to start something entrepreneurial by giving you an outline of how to go from idea to income. Realize that the steps outlined in the article are not set in stone. You’ll have to do what you can when you see fit for your business – but following these principles will help get you off on the right foot with your venture.
Remember, nobody knows how to go from idea to income quite like successful entrepreneurs who have already done it before . You might need advice or guidance throughout this process so keep that in mind when you’re thinking about taking your idea into the world.
It’s YOUR time to go from IDEA TO INCOME.
