Idea Building: Developing Your Idea

Coming up with an idea is only half the fun of being all entrepreneurial, developing it is where the real magic starts happening!

Being a web based idea, there are a few things that you should take care of before you head out and get it developed -

1. Are you able to handle any aspect of the idea? Design, code, programming, buying the domain?
2. What are your strengths? {marketing?}
3. What are your weaknesses? {customer support?}
4. Will you able to manage it by yourself, once you go live, or will you need assistance?
5. A reasonable level you want to achieve within a specified time frame

Those are some pretty basic points that you should write out and draw up a plan for. It will ease up the execution of your idea down the road.

Once you have figured out what you can and cannot do, it’s time to get started.

Flow Your Idea

The above diagram is representative of what you should be thinking about when it comes to your idea. Laying out all the pros and cons will not only help you figure out if it’s viable, but it may also lead you down another path to a new {maybe even better} idea.

One thing to keep in mind when formulating is to always show it to someone you trust, as you will hardly ever tell yourself that something may not work. You will need someone on the outside to tell you that, and hopefully help you with options. This is the only way that you will come up with a rock solid plan. Just don’t publish your idea on a live forum on the web!

Research Your Idea

Take the time to figure out if your idea has already been done on the web, chances are it has. Yes, someone already sold a million pixels for a buck each.

If you do not take the time to research what you’re planning on building, then you shouldn’t be building it at all. There are many resources you can use to search for information. If you are planning on building a service around something that already exists then a good suggestion would be to interact with users of the service and see what their needs are. This will help you build a better understanding of your potential customer.

While researching it’s always good to keep redrawing your flow chart, this will help keep your innovation levels high.

Come To A Conclusion

photo credit: Symic

It’s quite easy to keep on thinking of new ideas and various ways you can execute any given one. But at some point of time you will have to decide on your course of action. This can either be the hardest part for you, or the easiest. Personally it’s the hardest for me, mostly because I can’t stop thinking of new ideas.

If you are having trouble coming to a conclusion, then maybe you should go over your plans once again and minus out a few details. When I was making the plan for WP Auctions I wanted all sorts of features built into it, but I decided to take a few out just so that we could move ahead with development and keep it light enough for a plugin.

After all, where’s the fun in developing something only to find out someone else do it before you launch? It’s happened to me three times before, and I was not going to let it happen again. The plugin is doing great, has a ton of positive reviews and we’re moving forward with phase 2 - which will include the features I took out before we decided to move forward.

The best advice I can give you to develop your idea is to have as much fun as you can with it. Don’t take forever deciding on features, instead think of the most simplest way that you can launch it with and work towards that. Once you have it out, and in the hands of users, that is when it will really start taking shape. Be prepared for rejection as well and don’t worry too much about why you haven’t become a millionaire over night.

There’s always tomorrow night

Recommended Reading

• Idea Building: Watch Your Idea Come To Life
• My First Premium WordPress Is Theme On Its Way…
• The first of many
• AdPack - Marketing Ideas Unlimited