The Vikings have somewhat of a reputation to be fearless and ruthless warriors.
After landing their boats on the shores of a newly discovered land, the leader (Head of Vikingness, or whatever their job title was) would have the crew set fire to their own boats. They then advanced with the heat from the burning boats warming their backs. There was no going back!
Whether you’re about to start, or you already have, there is one thing I can guarantee:
If you’re not getting the results you want, it will be for any one of three main reasons:
- You haven’t FULLY committed with MAXIMUM action (Viking behaviour) to one; yes ONE idea
- You haven’t focused (if you try and sell EVERYTHING to EVERYBODY you’ll end up selling NOTHING to NOBODY.)
- You’re MISSING something in the execution which is normally sales related
This step deals with number 1. You will learn numbers 2 and 3 throughout this course.
At our Rebel courses, we often ask people what their idea is.
It is very VERY rare that we hear a concise and focused answer; quite often people start with “My first idea is dance classes, my second idea is a national tour with South American dance pros, and my third idea is corporate consulting.”
One participant needed help to decide between the two ideas she had put on her website. The first was a recruitment agency and the second was care packages for hen parties. Yes, they were both on the same website!
If you are someone that has more than one business idea then you need to narrow it down and focus. If you split your focus between two or even three ideas you won’t make the progress you want to. Focus on one idea at a time. Out of all your business ideas, based on where your head is at right now, what’s your best guess as to the idea that:
- Excites you
- Is doable
- You can make money from
We’ve met people making money by knitting on Facebook Live, playing video games, and making Christmas jumpers for dogs. It has never been more possible to make money doing what you love. In fact, it doesn’t matter what idea you choose; what matters is that it matters to you…and you FOCUS on it.
That means you take all of your other business ideas and you put them on one of two lists:
1: The Someday-Maybe List
This is for all your other business ideas. Park them here for another day. You can come back to them after you have proved if the first one is a winner or not.
2: The Hobby List
This is for the stuff you still like to do, it just won’t be your main source of income.
Simon and Alan use this method for choosing ideas that they want to focus on at the Rebel Business School. It makes it easy to see where you should focus.
First, get a pad of sticky notes and write each of your ideas on a separate note. Alternatively, you can download and print a template for this method here:
Second, create a graph. One axis should show “excitement” from 1 – 10 and the other axis should show “money” from 1 – 10. Then, split the graph in to four sections labelling them A, B, C and D. It should look like the following:
Once you’ve got your grid, take some sticky notes (or just write on the graph) and stick them on your grid 1 by 1 based on where the idea’s are on your axis. If you have a friend to help you with it, even better!
Once you have finished, take a look at where the idea’s fell:
- If you have an idea in Box B, this may be the one! This is the one that gets you out of bed in the morning and you can start quickly and easily. EXCITING.
- If you have an idea in Box A, you have great ambition but are probably stuck because the thing you’re excited about is too big, too ambitious, too perfect. How could you knock it into Box B? You might need to be creative. Come up with ideas to answer these questions: How can I make this simpler? How could I make this easier? If I had to launch this business tomorrow morning, how would I do it? How could I start small and make the best of the resources I already have?
- If your ideas are in Box D – You could start tomorrow or sooner but it doesn’t float your boat. Here are some questions for you to think about: What could you do with this idea to make it brilliant? What twist to this idea would make you different to the competition (like the zombie fitness trainer)?
We meet lots of people who try and run with three, four even five business ideas at once. It’s because they’re scared! We’re all scared! What if it doesn’t work? What if I don’t choose the right idea? The people who try and run with more than one business idea at once are ALWAYS the ones who will get frustrated, quit and have to take a job instead.
If you’re still left with more than one idea, like some of the artists and makers we meet, answer this question: Out of all of your ideas, which is most special? Which of your creative talents makes people go “wow! I’ve never heard of that before!?”
There are, broadly speaking, two types of businesses we meet:
- Type 1 – ‘I’ve got a great idea and I think I can make money out of it.’
- Type 2 – ‘I love doing XXXXXX, I just need to figure out how to make money out of it.’
Guess which one is still trading three years later? Type 2 of course!
These are the people who would still be doing what it is they do, even if they weren’t getting paid for it. Interesting that some of the most successful people on the planet chose to do what they are most passionate about which became instrumental to their success: Bill Gates (computers), Oprah Winfrey (helping people) Disney (making movies), and so on. That’s why at the Rebel Business School we help people make money doing what they love.
One of the best pieces of advice we’ve been given is:
Fall in love with your business idea, don’t be seduced by it.
Wouldn’t it be amazing to have a book published? To see it there on the shelf? However the thought of having to write a thousand words a day for the next 200 days? Less exciting… Unless writing is what you love doing.
When you’re choosing the idea to go with, it’s not just your excitement for the idea, it’s the activity you have to do every day to make it happen. That’s the stuff to fall in love with. Oh, and once you’ve chosen… Go all in.
