Inspiration and ideation

Being an entrepreneur is stressful, no doubt about it. Like most things, it doesn’t happen overnight. Instead it’s a journey with many stages, each posing different challenges. The key to success through it all, is aligning with programs and resources that can help your journey stay on track. Let’s start with Stage 1: the beginning.

Stage 1: Inspiration and ideation

This stage is where entrepreneurs have their first brilliant idea. It typically involves identifying a problem, an opportunity or gap in the marketplace, which leads to a profitable business opportunity. The first real challenge at this stage is thinking of a good idea, because without it, there’s no entrepreneurial journey.

Next, it’s vital that whatever idea you come up with, the idea is profitable and viable over the long-term, in order to develop a successful business.

A perfect example of this is Elon Musk, who has successfully developed profitable ideas that fill gaps in certain markets with companies like Tesla and SpaceX. Throughout his journey, he has taken risks and put virtually everything he has financially into ideas he’s passionate about, and as a result, today owns a number of very profitable, very successful businesses.

Before investing time or money, be sure the business idea has legs. Research shows that the number-one reason businesses don’t succeed is because there’s no market need for them, with 42% of businesses failing because of this reason. Test the idea and get feedback early, to ensure there’s market interest.

Stage 2: Execution

Next, it’s time to execute on the business idea. To get the ball rolling, it’s critical to determine how to collect resources, as well as find and attract the right people to help. Moving from perfecting the idea to implementing it can be a struggle.

Part of Bill Gates’ success comes from partnering with the right resources (namely, his childhood friend Paul Allen) and having access to technology (in Harvard University’s computer lab) to perfect his skills. After reading about the world’s first microcomputer, Bill and Paul worked to write programs for it. After proving successful, they founded Microsoft with a vision to put “a computer on every desktop and in every home.” Today, its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

There are many resources available to help turn a good idea into something tangible.