The High Price of Gas Four Ways the Idea of Your Business Can Cost You Everything
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The High Price of Gas: Four Ways the "Idea" of Your Business Can Cost You Everything by Kim Castle, BrandU®
[NOTE: Some words in this article may have been disguised to avoid triggering sp*m filters.]
Last week I was exercising in the canyons of Southern California by climbing hundreds of stairs. I love being away from my business because I’m fr*ee to expand for at least 60 minutes.
Out of the blue an idea for a completely new product came into my mind and it wouldn’t leave. It grew so strong it drowned out the Black Eyed Peas blaring from my IPod.
It started out soft like a tickle and before I knew it my thoughts weren’t my own.
I started seeing the product and how it was constructed; all the way down to what color the stitching was and where the logo would go.
I got excited about how there wasn’t a product like this on the market and how it would radically change the way people did something.
My heart soared with the charity that would benefit from the overflow of the millions of dollars it would generate. In my mind, I even started contacting people that could connect me to manufacturers in China.
Before I knew it, I wasn’t climbing stairs... I was soaring. I was high off an idea — from the fumes of a gas.
If you’re an entrepreneur you know the high I’m talking about. You may even be an “idea junkie”. You know who you are. It’s okay — awareness is the first step.
You also know the pain that often comes along with it; especially the pain of not making it real fast enough and getting people to buy it as quickly as possible before the next idea comes.
When speaking to entrepreneurs around the world about branding, I often refer to the “idea” of a business like a gas — like air. It’s “there” in feeling, but it doesn’t have form. It’s the translation from the idea into tangible form that traps so many and prevents them from ever getting beyond the high.
Here are four ways that just the “idea” of your business could cost you everything and what you can do about it.
• It’s not real — until you make it real. Without getting your idea out of your mind and into a tangible form it’s just a possibility; only serving you in the moment that you think of it. There are many ways to make it tangible even at the beginning.
Example: One client of mine, before she worked with me, would pay thousands of dollars to have her book jackets designed BEFORE she even wrote the book. Just beware, while this does get the idea out of you into a form you can touch, it’s done so with great risk. Without first establishing the core of idea from the inside, that outside influence could take you away from what the business or product really is. That’s why the way we approaching branding is vital in the beginning of a business or product development.
• It’s so flexible — there's nothing there. Without putting up walls (or mental blinders) by establishing what an idea for a business really is and what it is not, you are at the mercy of the hundreds of potential business ideas that your brain is feeding you daily(each one is more exciting than the last). Trust that each idea carries with it a great potential. But they are just an idea until it’s impacting a customer’s life.
This is why the entire first half of our branding process doesn’t even involve the customer. We focus on creating the door and house that they will walk into and want to stay. What your idea is, is a solid half of the relationship you have with your customer.
• It’s worth nothing — until you add interest. While you have experienced the idea, just having it is not unique. At the same exact time, someone else could be having the same exact thought. After all, we all feed from the same pond.
What makes it unique, is what drives your need to create it. People don’t just buy because they have nothing else to do. They need a reason to choose one thing over another. It’s the very same reason that drives you to take action on just a thought.
• It means nothing — until it means something to someone else. People can’t buy your idea unless they can connect to it in a way that impacts their life.
Think about what it would be like trying to sell someone air. It’s the same as selling them your idea. It needs to be clearly translated into a tangible and emotional experience, if you truly want to move beyond the feeling it gives you.
That said, your ideas do have great value at the start of a business. Without ideas, you’d have nothing to act on. But ideas are just the spark to get you started. They feel so great because it takes a lot of fuel to create something out of nothing. That fuel is excitement.
By harnessing that excitement with form, foundation, reason and connection, you’ll have what it takes to share your idea “high” with the world. And they’ll gladly pay for it.
© Castle Montone, Limited
Are you making one of the 15 MISTAKES THAT KILL BUSINESS SUCCESS? Find out at www.15mistakes.com.
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can. Simply include this blurb with it: Brand Visioneer and BrandU co-founder, Kim Castle teaches entrepreneurs and small business owners how to turn their business ideas into a moneymaking marketable brand. If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank™, get your FR*EE branding tips now at www.whybrandu.com
The High Price of Gas Four Ways the Idea of Your Business Can Cost You Everything - To learn more about this author, visit Kim Castle's Website.
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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Michiel JonkerAs a Certified Information Systems Auditor, Michiel assists businesses in a professional capacity by evaluating the threats to their businesses. He acquired the necessary knowledge, skills, and techniques to minimize a business owner’s risk of business failure and to maximize his chances of high growth and success. He strongly believes that you CAN maximize your chances of business success, by implementing the business solution he has advocated for more than 12 years in your business plan and planning. Michiel has decided to share his experience with business owners by putting almost everything he knows in a business plan and survival guide (compiled in an e-book format) and written as a high growth SMB coaching course for SMB business owners, directors and managers - titled as the “Survival Kit for Small and Medium Businesses - Profit from your Business Risks!” According to Michiel, his goal was to add new techniques to a business owner’s business planning survival kit and instruct him or her in using these in the future - without any help from a consultant! For more information about the benefits of implementing profit protection planning in your business, please visit: http://www.business-around-the-globe.com - Visit Michiel Jonker's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is a best-selling author, top-rated speaker and thought leader on sales development. He is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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