Your billion $ idea
Article Overview: How do you know if your fabulous new business idea will make you fabulously rich? Read this insightful article to test your startup idea.
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Free Download - Protecting your startup idea By Roger Pierce
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Your billion $ idea
Eureka!
You’re hit with a fantastic idea for a new business. Your heart beats
faster every time you think about it. You can’t sleep at night. Your palms are
sweaty with anticipation. You are annoying your spouse by talking about it
incessantly.
These are signs you’ve discovered the next billion dollar idea. Now
what?
At this stage of your start-up journey, the idea stage, I think it’s
important to talk about the very notion of ideas and what they really are.
An idea is a perceived opportunity. It is not reality – yet. You have
some work to do before you can cash that billion-dollar cheque.
For starters, you must investigate your idea to change ‘perceived’
opportunity into ‘researched’ opportunity.
I want you to prove to me there are customers in the world who will
actually buy what you propose to sell.
Next, we want to change the word ‘opportunity’ to ‘plan.’ That means
combining some market research with the ideas in your head and putting both
down on paper. It’s called a Business Plan, and you’d be surprised at how many
start-ups don’t bother with one (I’ve heard estimates of 80 percent). You will
significantly increase your probability of success by writing a simple ten-page
plan.
Action will follow your plan – but more on that later.
Most billion dollar ideas never evolve into living and breathing
businesses. But yours will.
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About the Author: Roger Pierce
RSS for Roger's articles - Visit Roger's website
Roger Pierce is a Startup Expert with 11 small businesses to his credit. He's coached and trained tens of thousands of entrepreneurs across Canada and around the world. President of NewcomerStartup, and co-founder and former President of BizLaunch, Roger has worked with dozens of major corporations to advance their small business marketing strategies.
An avid writer and blogger on small business topics, Roger is the Startup Columnist for the Toronto Sun, 24Hrs and co-author of the book, Thriving Solo: How to Grow a Successful Business.
He's also the voice of Scotiabank's site for small business owners, called Get Growing for Business. Entrepreneurs visiting the site will enjoy how-to articles, interactive tools, videos and helpful resources.
What does he love most about being an entrepreneur? "I get excited about the work I'm doing. When I wake up in the morning I feel an adrenaline rush as I anticipate the things I'll get to do today."
Roger and his wife, Tina, and their children Kaitlyn and Connor, live in downtown Toronto.
Click here to visit Roger's website

More from Roger Pierce
Pros Cons of a Family Business
Three BillionDollar Ideas
Use your talent to launch your biz
Where ideas are born
Million Dollar Mistakes
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Related Forum Posts
Re: Is Twitter really worth $1 Billion?
- Twitter is simply worth what someone will pay for it.
Youtube sold for about 1.7 billion (Google recently admitted they paid too much) and that was when the economic outlook was a lot better, and YouTube was way more established and had many more users.
Twitter at $1 billion is over valued in my opinion, but it just depends on what someone else will pay and what it is worth to them
Re: Billion Dollar Business
- [quote="mphcoach":2ce34yto]How do you create a billion dollar business?
Spend two billion on an airline - boom, boom!
[/quote:2ce34yto]
It's interesting how the government - of any country - can make or break businesses. I'm not an expert on the airline business, but wasn't it deregulation in the 70s that put the kibosh on everything?
Although I think things weren't too bad, until after 9/11, and then they started hiring more security and not hiring more air traffic controllers --with just as much efficiency as you might expect from a government-run program, and things have been going down hill ever since.
Re: Marketing to Wealthy Consumers
- [quote:30rrziaf]In addition, have you considered creating custom rugs/mats for dogs and cats? T[/quote:30rrziaf]
Yes we have. The custom side of the market is untapped... and very large. We've set aside time to focus on a few markets for the time being. Here's a short list of the bigger markets from a report that I've made available on our training site. Most of these markets are still growing...
$29 billion annual - Pet themed products - includes custom pet mats, rugs etc...
$30 billion annual - Auto aftermarket: includes custom floormats
$23 billion annual - Boating - includes custom yachts etc...
$12 billion annual - Motorcoaches - includes custom touring coaches, RV's etc..
Our research shows that more and more people are interested in a personalized product experience. This is reflected in websites like Amazon.com, and the social marketing sites. The more sophisticated companies know that tailoring your marketing message to 'individuals' is more effective.
It's pretty clear that we're entering an age of personalizing products... this is especially true for the wealthy consumers, which is why I'm always looking for new ways of making those connections: [i:30rrziaf]as cheaply as possible![/i:30rrziaf]
[quote:30rrziaf]A carmat tailored to someone's logo or whatever would be a great Prize here....[/quote:30rrziaf]
The challenge, and this is true for all of these markets, is that an infrastructure needs to be developed, this takes time and money. Every car is different, each floormat is a different size, templates need to be made etc...
I suppose a template making kit could be made and FedExed to the winner, then returned for manufacturing. Most of our custom logo flooormats are $300-400 price range - not sure if it's too expensive for a freebie?
If we came up with a generic shape and design concept, that could bring our costs down.
Re: iPhone Apps: Biz Idea!
- San Diego, California – Got an idea for a killer iPhone app? With more than 1 billion applications sold since its launch last July, Apple’s iPhone App Store has become one of the fastest-growing tech enterprises in recent history, and gained a reputation as something of a developer’s goldmine. Success stories such as that of Ethan Nicholas, whose iShoot app has earned him $900,000 in eight months, have only added to the App Store’s appeal for would-be iPhone entrepreneurs.
“The runaway success of the App Store has created the legend of the iPhone millionaire,” says Ian Maskell, principal of iPhone App Freelancer, a company aiming to make it possible to get your idea into the App Store without technical knowledge and minimal financial outlay.
“Everywhere we went people would say: ‘I’ve got a great idea for an app.’ We saw an opportunity to level the playing field and allow anyone the ability to become the next success story, regardless of their ability to program or write code.”
So Maskell launched iPhone App Freelancer, a website offering the ability to turn great ideas into apps with little or no programming knowledge.
Rob Shoesmith, a 27-year-old garbage collector from Coventry – England, submitted one of the first ideas to iPhone App Freelancer for development. Shoesmith says he has only had an iPhone for a few months, but has been following the growth of the App Store since its launch. He wants to keep the specifics of his app under wraps until its launch, but describes it as a user-generated advice service.
New Squiddledee Prizes!!
- I think I like the shark tie...It would sure be cool for someone in the big corporate world..letting everyone know you're really a shark! You know- for the guys or gals who digest multi-billion dollar deals for breakfast!
Nana- I doubt i could ever get my husband to wear oe either...but I agree with you- I would! LOL
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