Idea Percolator

As I enter the next phase of the grand plan (Hang on! There's a plan????) I am filled with confidence, excitement, and shit scary ploppy pants.

What gives me confidence also gives me doubt.

I have a multitude of ideas. Fifteen at the last count... so if one doesn't work, then surely there's another one to try...

By the fact of having so many ideas also means that I can't get after one of them immediately with an all consuming passion. I worry that this means I won't put in all my energy to make any of the ideas a success.

But, to some degree by not getting after an idea with absolute intensity allows me to mull it over. It allows me to contrive "thought experiments" to understand the potential barriers and work out solutions before I invest a single pound. It's what I call my idea percolator...

Interestingly they're not all my ideas... Some of the ideas have come from friend's conversations, and they have sought me out, and I'm genuinely excited by that as I look forward to being the first person my friends turn to when they want to start their idea, using my expertise and, hopefully, capital.

What price for a business plan? Its worth at least £200 to not bother with one...

My background is a mix of big companies and little companies, and one of the constants in all of these companies is the necessity of writing up how you plan to spend the money you're asking for. For all the differences in each company, they have all asked for a business plan for new products, new marketing strategies or change management programmes. My current employer needs 5 business plans to get a new product off the ground (albeit at different points in the process of innovation). And each business plan has to go through the hierarchy before it comes back down with the amends before it gets to the decision makers, who don't actually read it cover to cover, but simply skip to the financials, give their opinion (usually it's not big or quick enough). Each business plan takes a minimum of two weeks to pull together and covers a host of areas from production, marketing, sales, HR, finance, media relations, legal, IP, and distribution. It's an industry in itself, and for a while that's all I seemed to do (and all I thought that was necessary to do to make a new product a success).

Recently two things have struck me about the need for Business Plans.

First of all I haven't done one for the Internet venture I'm involved in with my Business Buddy. Only in the last couple of days have we been asked for a Business Plan. We didn't need one when setting up our business account at the bank. We didn't need one when opening accounts with our suppliers. We didn't need one when we were inviting web developers to pitch for building our site. We didn't need one to raise finance (it came from our own pockets!). We didn't need it to sort out the role profiles we were both going to undertake (we just agreed it between ourselves and got on with it). We didn't need it to set up the company with Companies House. We didn't need it to inform HMRC about our Tax status. We were only asked for it when we requested an Internet Merchant Account from a competitor bank. And the only reason we asked about that was our current bank were asking for £200 to set up an Internet merchant account. We've now decided to pay £200 rather than the hassle of developing a business plan. Our time needs to be spent on sourcing our products and sorting out the glitches on the web site with the blasted web developer (he hinted!). We're far more interested in learning how our business works than actually writing about how we think it could work.

Secondly, I recently read a blog about writing a Business Plan and it struck a chord, especially with my experience of writing Business Plans in my current employer. Business plans are a cacophony of... how can I put this... random guesses. I can't tell the future any better than anybody else. I, nor anybody else, has a special gift for predicting the future success of a business through a business plan or through tea leaves. And writing a business does not miraculously give me that insight into the future. Some people argue that without a Business Plan you won't know where you're going as you won't have planned what you're doing in a couple of years time. Couple of years?!?!?!?! Who's plans are actually accurate within a couple of months of launch???

My final thought about writing a business plan is the emotion that goes along with it. Writing a business plan is tiresome. It means checking and re-checking your numbers and words. And with every word that is typed, it means you are one more word away from actually doing something and that sets in motion a cycle of procrastination about getting the business plan right before you give it to people, before you get the funding, and before you start on your idea. I found with my last idea that when I gave up on writing my business plan, I actually picked up making my idea come alive. And with every step taken in setting up the idea came more energy. I was able to tinker it based on real evidence rather than "guesses".

As you can tell, I'm not an advocate of Business Plans, but I am an advocate for the thinking that a Business Plan promotes, and the challenge that arises from those thoughts, as opposed to keeping them safe in my
little head, secure in the knowledge that it's just my own thoughts. And there needs to be a balance between thinking and doing. So I suggest a business plan that can be written on the back of a fag packet and kept inside your head, while you get on with building your dream.

Momentum...

The last few weeks have been rather hectic both in and out of work...

In the middle of the summer, I had a chat with my business buddy and he had been slightly deflated about his business plans.  Nothing had blocked his way.  No big  questions had been asked.  Just lethargy.  Perhaps even a bit of confidence taking a knock.

So to help him out, I offered to help him by taking some of the workload off him.  I thought this would generate some momentum and get him closer to his goal.  I offered to go 50:50 with him on selling 100 units by Christmas, to share the load for those first 100 units.  We made a plan for selling the units in different routes to market to see what was the most effective.  We also made a plan to produce the 100 units.  Christ!  I might as well run the business...

And the first meeting with a customer went well and we were off and running towards our target well before Christmas.

And then a funny thing happened... my business buddy had a thought.  A thought based on the experience he had with these first customers.  I think what happened (as I'm not really sure!) was that he saw how he could improve on what these customers were doing and how "easy" it was.  It wasn't revolutionary.  It was evolutionary.

What he saw was that that all the potential customers were offering a "functional" proposition, one that was based on what the product category was called and what it did.  It didn't communicate how the entire category solved the main underlying need.  And that was his idea...

So we got cracking on it... building a e-commerce site, looking at appropriate need based domain names, incorporating a business company with two directors, starting a business bank account and sourcing the products.  And I feel confident about it.  It feels right.  It's simple and incremental.  We know the category has appeal.  We're just doing it better!

But here is the weird bit!  I've not done one bit of analysis.  I've not done a single spreadsheet or business plan.  I feel exposed but I feel comfortable.  I feel exposed as I have no idea how big or small this could be.  I don't know what the cash flow forecast is.  I don't have a clue what the capital requirements are.  I don't know what the KPI's are.  But I feel confident.  I know this will work and I completely trust my business buddy, and I'm in for half the costs (and potentially half the profits!).

And all of this has confirmed a couple of things... The first is opportunities.   We wouldn't be looking at this by just sitting around feeling bad about the idea.  It came about by driving forward and by having the confidence to give up the things you started upon and seeing how to realise the opportunity.  It's all about opening doors...

The second thing is instinct.  I really know there is something in this and I don't need numbers to prove it.

Jerry Maguire

Tonight I came close to writing my Jerry Maguire memo...

I was out with colleagues from a separate business division and we got talking about work and the underlying issues.

There was a big positive moment and also a big wake up call too.

The big positive moment was about uniting the team around one individual goal. A singular and focused initiative that was all encompassing and had customer and consumer appeal.  Namely gifting.  Encouraging the consideration of gifting by all consumers in this particular business was an audacious customer proposition.  Gaining the conversion of all those consumers who thought gifting was important into a specific category represented £37bn of incremental sales value.  If they bought a gift twice per trip it would double to £74bn.

Now we're not in a position to make this happen as in a number of occasion we can't even get the stock there in time and in full (and there's more than that problem with this business unit).   But uniting behind this one goal would make ALL the other things actually happen.  The team currently have 34 business priorities right now.  The thinking tonight was to say forget the 34 and focus on this one because we can actually deliver all the 34 through this one, and probably deliver more than that, because to deliver this one big goal means we have to deliver the simple stuff too...

But the bad thing about all of this was that fact that 8 of my colleagues could only talk about this and a number of other issues with the help of a glass of wine and not be upfront about the need for change and how to make the change happen for the benefit of the business and the benefit for the individuals.

I was left with a feeling of my colleagues use language and behaviours to manage their careers rather than using all the tools at their disposal to manage the business performance. 

Tonight I could feel a revolution in the air.  I could feel energy and determination to change.  But I know it won't last.  I know nobody will write their Jerry Maguire memo saying what is wrong with the current culture and how to change that culture to offer benefit both to our customers but also to the shareholders.

I need to write my own Jerry Maguire memo soon to help me paint the picture of what I want from taking on this challenge...

A Crap Juggling Act

Looks like the voyage is taking shape...

I am growing more and more confident about leaving Shawshank, although I am prone to the odd bit of self doubt about how I'll cope and what my life will look like.

 

My plan is a bit like a crap juggling act... start juggling THREE balls, and then drop at least one of them, if not two of them depending upon how it goes.

Ball 1 - Interim management.

 

Ball 2 - Small Business Coaching.

 

Ball 3 - Develop & nurture my own business ideas.

 

Interim Management - is that not just going back into Corporate life? I see Interim Management as a way for me to wean myself off the corporate lifestyle that I've become accustomed to and also to become more financially secure as I can charge myself out at a higher daily rate than my current salary, and accept that I won't work everyday (I'll be amazed if I can get 50% of my weeks filled).  It's really appealing as it's what I essentially did in Japan and that was massively rewarding to me professionally as I was able to deliver a short term objective free from the politics (mostly free from the BIG politics), so I'm hoping for more of the same...  Over time I would like to drop this as the other two elements take off and as my need for corporate succour diminishes.  I'm assuming that Innovation, trade marketing and trade terms would be the main elements here.

Small Business Coaching is something that excites & interests me.  I would help out management of small companies (circa 100 employees) by asking questions, provoking thoughts & options and giving them the structure to decide & act upon their own options, and hold them to account.  I'd hopefully instill a guidance & leadership discipline that they may not have already.  I feel it needs to bridge the gap between lifestyle coaching & management consulting, as I don't want to do either, nor do I think that is my forte.  I'm kind of already doing this with my business buddy and also a collection of others.  My corporate training will help me structure the thinking and my functional skills will help me pose the questions & layout the options.  I'm not sure how I will really make money from this, so I really need to research this further by contacting some friends of friends who do a similar but different type of job. Will this bring me the lifestyle I want?  I see it as being rewarding me "spiritually" by helping others and I hope it will give me a full & financially strong  way of life, though I'll be no millionaire. I already have a marketing position which is to offer "training" for free based on being able to receive grants from Business Link in return for the small company recommending me to 5 other companies.

 

The third ball is my own business.  I know that the first & the second ball will not fill up my time and I know I have a tendency when there's not a lot on to become lazy and I want to avoid that.  So I'm hoping that I can balance my "downtime" from either of the above with the other one and if there is still time remaining then work at my own things.  I'm really motivated about having my won thing on several fronts:  it seems like "destiny" in that it fits everything I've done thus far; it could financially reward me in a significant way; it would fit with the my ideal lifestyle (lots of time mulling about, then an idea, lots of energy, lots of late nights...); and I would feel a great deal of pride in what I do.  My ideal would that the other two balls would drop as this ball becomes bigger & bigger...

 

So that's the plan, but I need to get some of the details clarified to make sure that the three balls are things I want to do and that I have the necessary skills to juggle all three balls at once and make sure I don't drop the one I want to keep up!

Relevancy

Over a beer last night with a friend we got talking about my idea.  I had told him some months earlier, and as normal, he said that was a great idea and I told him my dilemmas, and as we talked he thought he would give it a try.

So last night was the first time I'd seen him since he'd used my product and he said it was useful as there was at least two occasion where he definitely would have needed

Is this relevant to the user?  We saw two barriers to it being relevant. 

 

The first is infalability - people just don't believe they are like the average person, and two thirds of people could have a need for my product.  It's a bit like being a good driver - people are asked if they are a better driver than the average and 80% of drivers think they are better than the average, which is statistically impossible. People just don't believe the y will need this product, because they're not like everybody else.

The second is impunity - people don't see the costs or consequences of NOT using my product.

So now it's just down to breaking these barriers...

The Journey Continues

The other week I caught up with an old colleague to pick his brains about what my issue following my test was and also to help me research on a budget any potential solutions.

The main thought that came from our discussions was one that has worried me before...

... my product is irrelevant to people.

When introducing my idea to people they have all unanimously said "That's a great idea" and start to give me their builds on the idea (most of which I have already considered before they amde them so I smile and say interesting thought!).

But the crunch comes when I find out they are perfect target audience - they don't see it being relevant to them!

From that I think I have to focus on the "Reason To Believe" along with the Emotional Benefits and communicating both of those in a truly compelling & engaging way. To some degree my target consumers needs to be informed about what happens if they don't take my product, which is obviously negative and I'd love to spin that around into a positive & up beat message.

So working on that basis, I need to get in contact with some experts in the field of my product and then bounce my ideas around some consumers until I find a motivating & clear proposition.

My old colleague gave me some ideas on how I can do this on a budget, and here they are...

Find a "Group" on facebook and contact them asking for feedback on my idea
Find a professional "expert" who knows everything there is to know about my problem

Find a market research company who wants to work in my industry and see if they would provide some additional questions in their background questionnaires.

Pay for an omnibus research study to see the scope of the challenge of relevancy