Leading Entrepreneurship Blog

1
7 WAYS TO TRANSFORM YOUR BUSINESS IDEA TO A
SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
Welcome back and lets get going right on! Our
article of today focusses on the critical issues
that you need to transform a business idea into a
business opportunity, and eventually to a
successful enterprise. Start-up statistics show
that up to 90 of businesses fail, with the top
reason for failure being no market need and this
accounts for 42. This is closely followed by
cash or financing challenges at 29.
2
Startup failure statistics Now, these statistics
are honestly worrying. Dont you agree with me?
We can only imagine the financial and other
related impacts of these failures. Not nice! The
question we should ask then is why are
entrepreneurs failing to get right the market
need agenda? How and why do they spring up with
products for which there is no market need? This
hinges on the initials from idea generation, idea
screening and validation. It also involves a
sense check regarding the ability of the venture
to get good traction and start generating
significant cash flows after a reasonable time,
and also generate profit. In this blog I intend
to start with the subject of idea incubation and
validation together with money- making
sense. Later I will proceed to consider a few
other important considerations you need to
translate your business idea into an opportunity
and eventually a blossoming enterprise. I mean,
you should decide to go for it and commit when
you really have a good and viable business idea.
Once you start you should not look back. The
opportunity should be good enough to avoid your
venture becoming another part of the 90
statistic above. Ok? 1. Idea incubation and
validation. Based on the above findings that lack
of market need accounts for 42 of start-up
failures, any wise entrepreneur would not take
lightly the business idea incubation and
validation task. The incubation time simply
enables you to go the extra mile to think through
your business idea severally, including the
products or services and the market. If done
properly it enables you to avoid ending up with a
product or service for which there is no market
need. You can only waste this incubation and
validation time at your own peril, Got it? Every
wise entrepreneur will deeply refine and shape
his or her ideas and confirm the strategic fit
for the venture. This involves market research
(basically fact finding) and making use of the
feedback. Your value propositions should sync
with your target market. Catherine Cote of
Harvard Business School provides for us a useful
guide in this respect. Dont get scared away by
the term market research since you can do
this through simple approaches. If you discussed
this with a professor of business it could get
more complex due to terminologies he/she will
use. Dont get me wrong. Professors are nice
people but sometimes the academic world gets
things too complicated.
3
Candidly, my dear entrepreneur, you need to get
down to fundamentals of customer needs, market
segment and size including market share, customer
validation, testing your products or services
etc. to get this right. There is no
short-cut. When you test your business idea vs
competitors and the market, this will help you to
assess whether you have enough market or not.
Dont make a product that only your grandfather
or close relatives will buy! Please,
dont. Start-up Nation also has some good guides
about rating your ideas and making forecasts of
revenues and expenditures at this validation
stage. You also have to take into account other
related feasibility considerations including
technological, sustainability etc. If you must
pivot, please proceed and do so reasonably
quickly to avoid becoming another failure
statistic. I think we should proceed to the next
point now. The good thing is that you have access
to limitless resources on the internet to study
more on this. Ok? 2. Cash flow and the
money-making sense check. Successfully
translating your business idea into a business
opportunity also involves doing some serious
preliminary work on the aspect of cash flow and
money-making sense. Consistent cash flow and
profitability comes from revenue generation, and
this revenue comes from folks that you have
impressed enough with value creation and
delivery. Even if you have tons of cash to start
your business with (which is even very unlikely),
you need to ensure good revenue streams within a
reasonable time period. This reasonable time
period depends on the nature of business but
usually one to three years, unless otherwise. You
have to assess your potential profitability, and
your business model is critical here. The
business model guides your enterprises on how to
create and deliver value to customers. Now, this
is where the money-making qualities or sense
kicks in! Money speaks the language that
everybody understands. Someone said business is
the art of extracting money from other peoples
pockets without violence, and without them
complaining. Of course, there are guys who get
very good value and still pay while complaining.
A friend recently told me he has a client who
must quarrel every time hes paying money out.
Interesting! People are created and wired
differently. Anyway and candidly if your
enterprise does not create or add value or solve
a problem, in an affordable and nice way to
people, then you need to have a rethink. Im
being honest here! Why? Because if you dont get
paying customers early and sufficiently you
will run out of cash and max your debt and close
shop.
4
This means you could be another statistic forming
the 29 of ventures that fail due to cash flow
challenges. Cashflow is very important to
business and you cannot successfully take
advantage of a business opportunity without it.
You cannot properly manage and grow a business
without proper cash flow. If you can achieve
value and attract ten customers to buy then
probably you can attract one hundred and you
could breakeven and scale the business. Make no
mistake.
3. Business planning. The third vital thing that
you need to translate your business idea into a
successful business opportunity is business
planning. Business Planning You could quickly
read my article entitled Top 9 Reasons Why a
Business Plan Can Guide Your Business to
Success. Your business plan should incorporate
all vital elements of your enterprise, including
products and services, market and competitor
analysis including sales and marketing approach.
5
It should also include aspects of organization
and management, finance and control, risk
management, operations and logistics,
investments, human capital etc. Just a reminder!
Your marketing and business development plan and
strategy is critical to getting the enterprise
to generate revenues fast enough. It is also
critical to your survival as mentioned above. The
plan should also include your operations strategy
including design and development elements as may
be applicable. Dont forget the financial
elements please for goodness sake. Your
business plan can open funding and investment
avenues for you. In fact, great business plans
usually easily attract funding. To repeat what I
mentioned above, the second major reason for
business failure is cash flow problem, so your
financial plan is a must-do component of your
business plan. Never go to potential financiers
and investors with some dumb or lazy approach to
how you plan to run your business. Financiers
are keen to know that you understand your
business and clearly know the way forward for
the short, medium and long term. I cannot
overemphasize the fact that a business plan is
important for every enterprise. By the way, there
are some arguments against documenting
comprehensive business plans for start-ups. The
reasons given include high level of uncertainty
and the fact that the only reliable test is a
real one. The everchanging business environment
and the need to constantly adapt etc. are also
mentioned. Martin Zwilling, a veteran start-up
mentor, documents some of these arguments.
Richard Harrock, a contributor to Forbes
magazine also states that start-ups should not
waste time doing detailed business plans
rather should prepare pitch decks for
investors. Nevertheless, research evidence still
puts strong points for a business plan. Its your
choice. Its really up to you. Dont you think
so? 4. The human capital element. Placing
importance on human capital is also key to
successfully transforming your business idea
into a thriving business opportunity. Homo
sapiens can make you succeed or fail. Get this
right for your own sake. Dont come back
yapping about this after you have burnt your
fingers. As you can see from the statistics we
showed at the beginning, the wrong team accounts
for up to 23 of start-up failures. This is not
a number to ignore. Im talking about the
leadership and teams you have in your enterprise.
You need to wisely and smartly assemble the
right leadership and team to succeed. Take a look
at one of my earlier articles about the
importance of human capital. In fact, the quality
of an enterprise can never exceed the quality of
minds therein.
6

• Quoting General Colin Powell Organization
  doesnt really accomplish anything. Plans dont
  accomplish anything, either. Theories of
  management dont much matter. Endeavors succeed
  or fail because of the people involved. Only by
  attracting the best people will you accomplish
  great deeds.
• Powell further says Look for intelligence and
  judgement and most critically, a capacity to
  anticipate, to see around corners. Also look for
  loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a
  balanced ego and the drive to get things done.
• Indeed human capital affects organizational
  success, and your budding enterprise is no
  different.
• Isnt this fantabulous and great? Come on! Smell
  the coffee.
• Action (execution dynamics) and building
  momentum. Now, not everything on paper will be
  reality. Situations change, timing may be
  incorrect, assumptions change, something exactly
  like yours might already be existing and doing
  well or failing dramatically.
• What am I saying? Simply learn to connect the
  dots and adapt through execution. This is one
  reason why elaborate business plans could be
  useless sometimes.
• The execution culture is very useful in
  transforming business ideas into reality,
  ensuring efficiency and effectiveness of
  operations (which are critical for enterprise
  success) and progressing onto profitability,
  growth and enterprise sustainability.
• Execution further helps guarantee the success of
  a start-up.
• Please try and overcome perpetual planning and
  analysis (what some folks refer to as analysis
  paralysis). Get into action and move! Ok?
• Start positioning your business and branding
  including your long-term strategic growth through
  actions.
• Build capacity for growth, and before you can say
  Jack Robinson you will find your business idea
  becoming a viable and profitable business
  opportunity.
• Mentorship network and support. Another powerful
  approach to assist you move from the business
  idea level into a viable opportunity is the value
  of mentorship, coaching and support.
• You need a support base to succeed, beyond your
  work colleagues and staffs. Identify good and
  useful advisors and consultants (not just
  anybody who claims to be an expert).
• Mentorship and coaching (sense of direction)
• Keep an open mind and reach out when necessary.
  Appreciate the fact that continuous learning is
  vital for your entrepreneurial success.
• Justin Kulla, a Forbes Councils Member also
  argues that lifelong learning is a cornerstone
  for entrepreneurial success.
• Build positive relationships with those that
  matter. These could include industry experts and
  networks, business consultants, tax experts,
  accountants, relevant government agencies etc.

7
When you need to select experts, my tips on
choice of experts could be handy. 7. Work on
yourself. Finally, you need to work on yourself
to be able to successfully move from the
business idea stage into a successful and
sustainable venture built to last. You dont
need to blame me or anybody! If you screw up
things because your personality cannot support
business growth and success, you are the one who
will cry. Not so? Im referring to your passion,
courage, motivation, the need to stay positive,
self believe and being visionary, inspiration and
creativity. These also include timely decision
making and prioritization of issues,
accommodation of a certain level of risk yet
with wisdom and patience, etc. etc. Certain
personality traits are critical for your success
in business. These are sometimes referred to as
essential characteristics of entrepreneurs. Additi
onally, this also requires you getting more
organized individually and businesswise. Making
your business formal and legal is included
here. Never let success start getting into your
head, even if you start making great moves in
your enterprise. I think lets leave it here for
today. In conclusion, transforming your selected
or ideal business idea to a viable business
opportunity and later a successful venture is no
walk in the park. It requires effort and focus,
with cornerstones such as idea validation,
money-making sense check and business planning.
Others include the human capital element,
execution culture, business support network and
self-management (of the entrepreneur) and
organization. Ok. Great! If you like this blog,
kindly give us your feedback in the comments
section below, and also share it with as many
people as you like. Till then take care! The
Wise Entrepreneur NB. Images Courtesy of Leon on
Unsplash Jamie Templeton on Unsplash Source
https//www.thewiseentrepreneur.co.ug