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    Business Idea Feasibility Study 101

    So we had a look at business Ideas 101 and at least two of the ideas I called out 06-Sep-12, 01:37 PM Business Ideas 101 are feasible in the current environment.

    2. Water Storage Tanks
    With lack of water it is important that people collect rain water for use in the Garden etc. But perhaps in stead of making plastic ones for sale set up a business making them out of bricks, I have even seen some in Malaysia made out of wire mess and clay.

    3. Solar Panels
    Provide some form of solar power for homes.

    4. Invertors
    One can use solar to charge battery and an invertor to power up house, a good future business to invest in.

    Okay in Summing up Business Ideas 101 I will conclude, that the basics of generating a good business idea, comes from creativity and innovation.

    Creativity- coming up with an idea
    Innovation- Implementing the idea.

    Two important types of thinking are needed in idea creation.

    Divergent thinking- The ability to come up many diverse ideas (left Brain)
    Convergent Thinking - Logical thinking (right brain)



    So now that we have passed the basics the step after idea generation is conducting a feasibility study. This is the stage where we look to see if we can convert the idea into a business. Given that there are many business owners on the forum, please can you provide input on how you managed to turn your ideas into a business. What were the factors that you looked at before you made the idea into a business.

    Advice to those with ideas:
    I know many with ideas seem to think that all they need is investment, but a word of caution on that, know that investors will never in invest an idea, if you yourself have not invested in it.

    So how do we check if our idea is feasible?

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    I am a bit bit of a loss to understand the post. The post seems somewhat unstructured and convoluted. Are you looking to show your development process, are you looking for us to show you our development process or are you simply asking a rhetorical question?

    No I am not being a wise-ass, I just want to get a feel for your frame of reference.

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    Hi Adrian I was looking answers on how to conduct a feasibility study. In other words some one has an business idea, so from there what is the next step one has to conduct in order for the person to understand if the idea can be turned into a business.

    And trust me adrianh I do enjoy your frank way of speaking, some times you say things people don't want to hear, but need to hear, I call that being constructive.

    Simply speaking I'm just looking for how people turned their ideas into a business.

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    LOL

    Got some work to get through. After that I'll down my thoughts on the different ways we've tried to do it. I don't for one moment profess to have the right answers but I have learned many wrong answers - the very costly hard way!

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    @Justloadit thanks great advice.
    And I have being meaning to ask you, I seem to remember you mentioned some years back you bought a raspberry pi, was just wondering if you have made any good use of it.

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    Just a word of caution , when doing a little market research in testing the market, one has to be very careful not to divulge the full idea, or try and do the reseach with out letting the cat out the bag, because before you know it, someone else may have taken the idea and run with it.

    When an idea is first thought up, it usually stems from a necessity.
    Necessity is the root to new inventions!

    What we need to understand, that at the fast pace our planet travels at in communications speeds is quite frightening. There are 7billion people on the planet, a minimum of 2 people on the planet will get the same or similar idea, and solution, the question is who can do it the fastest and cheapest.

    So all problems we experience/witness and all potential solutions are viewed by every one, almost at lightning speed. The difference is that not every one can see a potential business venture in each problem, nor can they see the solution in each one. Speak to one person about it, and bang they are on the same wavelength as you. The question is, can you trust that some one when you are busy developing the idea.

    What I have done, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it does not. It all boils down to finance - plenty of it, and the idea will work and make money. Shoe string budget, well it has failed before it has started. Very very few actually make it.

    I get an idea, I then work out what the selling price will be.
    I talk to a few close friends that I trust, and get their feel.
    If positive, I then go outside the circle, and very carefully choose my questions to get the response I need by being evasive in the way I ask the question.
    If positive results, then I proceed to make a prototype. Test the concept see if it works.
    If positive, I don't go running for a patent, very costly and time consuming, and very difficult. 7 billion people and some part of the idea has already been patented.
    I make a small run, make up some marketing material and sell what I have,
    if it takes off, I make production.

    My experience is that 1 to 2 out of every 100 ideas makes it to market as a standard product.
    Victor - Knowledge is a blessing or a curse, your current circumstances make you decide!
    Solar pumping, Solar Geyser & Solar Security lighting solutions - www.microsolve.co.za

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    Okay cool. Also when you have time, you mentioned in the past that you bought a 3D printer, how is that working out, has it given you any stress?

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    Quote Originally Posted by vieome View Post
    Okay cool. Also when you have time, you mentioned in the past that you bought a 3D printer, how is that working out, has it given you any stress?
    I bought a Ultimaker 2. The machine works well and the software is good. The machine is great if you want to make low resolution non-working stuff like figurines but as far as I am concerned not much else. It is really just a toy. The resolution isn't good enough for the level of detail that I need, it is too slow to do anything large and the final result is too weak to be of any practical use.

    I print the odd part that will be used as a master for resin casting. The problem with the printed part is that it needs a lot of finishing before it can be used as a master due to its poor resolution. Anyway, I have a brilliant sculptress at hand who can sculpt absolutely anything by hand. I hand off all work that is even remotely artistic to her. She can complete a beautiful sculpt long before I figured out how to draw the part in 3D.

    I prefer to use the little CNC. I wish I had lots of capable hands and minds who work with me and don't give me shit. I have another project that needs to be done but to do it I need to put a 4th axis on my mini CNC. With a 4th and 5th axis there is very little that can't be done on the CNC.

    Just as an aside. I converted a 3D printer to a mini CNC machine a couple of months back. The client managed to destroy the extruders and the PC board. I don't want to go into the gory details but lets just say he isn't very bright. I removed the extruders (yes, he actually managed to destroy 2) and machined up a mount for a Proxxon machine (Similar to a Dremel but 10000x better). I used a Arduino UNO, GRBL shield and a couple of stepper drivers. There are many open source GRBL CNC toolpath generators so it was just a matter of picking one and running it on the PC. The machine works quite well.

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    Quote Originally Posted by adrianh View Post
    I prefer to use the little CNC. I wish I had lots of capable hands and minds who work with me and don't give me shit.
    From the your write up on the machines etc, I see that you definitely need lots of capable hands and minds. I guess that is where the real problem is in any business, as owner one is motivated by profit and that means making and moving product. As a worker one is motivated by salary, and that simply means turning up to work.

    A few weeks ago, I was looking at some ideas I wrote in my ideas journal and came to the conclusion that the time is right for some of ideas to be implemented. How long did it take you from the decision to start your own enterprise to get to the stage where you are now?

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    Quote Originally Posted by vieome View Post
    From the your write up on the machines etc, I see that you definitely need lots of capable hands and minds. I guess that is where the real problem is in any business, as owner one is motivated by profit and that means making and moving product. As a worker one is motivated by salary, and that simply means turning up to work.
    Yes, having lots of money is good. I'm mostly driven to design and make stuff. There are many tools, machines and odds-n-ends that I want to build but I don't always have the time or know-how. I have a barter relationship with a couple of people who are in leather work and woodwork so that helps.It would be great to have the same relationship with people in web programming, metal work and electronics. I mean hell, when we trade cash all that happens is that 30% of it gets eaten up by the banks and taxes.

    Quote Originally Posted by vieome View Post
    A few weeks ago, I was looking at some ideas I wrote in my ideas journal and came to the conclusion that the time is right for some of ideas to be implemented. How long did it take you from the decision to start your own enterprise to get to the stage where you are now?
    There are two ways to start your business:

    1. The big idea with the big business plan.
    2. Easing into it in small steps.

    I went along the "Easing into it in small steps" route. Thank God I didn't try the other route at the outset. Ok, so what does this mean. Everything that I've been into has been as a result of my own need, something that a friend needed or something that a company needed. I've been into many different things over the years, some successful and some not so great. The point is that I always tried to fill a need. I never just came up with an idea and thought cool, I can jump into that without much knowledge of the industry. You must remember that you don't have to put yourself at risk to start a little business, all that you need to do is to fulfill a need. You can advertise, market and sell via the web and social media. There are many tricks that you can use to see what it is that people want to buy. One way to get people to take part in your market research is to offer them a entry into a prize draw if they do. Make it worth their while. Doing so also gets you contact details of people who are interested in your products. Another trick is to offer lots of products and see what people want to buy. You need to be sure that you can get hold of, or make the products yourself. You don't have to keep stock, you simply get their payment upfront, buy and then ship the product. It is common practice to take the money before you ship. You can also advertise on Bid or Buy, Facebook, Gumtree or Ebay. I make a point of staying away from mission critical stuff and stuff where guarantees are expected. If a guy buys a product or service from me the exchange is generally over once I get the money and deliver. The products are small and cheap enough to replace in case something terrible does happen. The problem with generators, solar panels and all that stuff is that some fool will mess it up , phone you on a Saturday night and sh1t himself. You don't need it in your life. Leave that kind of thing to companies who are geared to deal with it. I prefer to quietly go about my business and keep a fairly low profile. I build my customer base very slowly by choosing my customers carefully. I've had too many dealings with a$$holes who waste my time. I try to steer clear of walk-in work because the time spent is generally once-off and as such lost to future income. What I mean is that it is more valuable for me to spend 3 hours drawing a product that I can sell 100 times versus doing a drawing for a customer that I can only bill once. That is why I choose my customers carefully, I don't mind drawing and developing products for them provided that their aim is to make lots of those products (Not to many and not too cheaply mind you) You have to be sure that you will still make a good profit out of each item made. I've been caught by people asking how much I will charge for 1 vs 100 items. I simply tell them now that as a small business it makes no difference because the labour per product remains the same. Yes there are ways to save costs on big quantities but you have to be careful that you don't shoot yourself in the foot by charging so little that your profit per product becomes meaningless. I am very weary of taking on large volumes because people always expect to pay next to nothing. When a customer comes and the first thing out his mouth is "I want it as cheap as possible" a warning bell goes off in my head. If that is all he is interested in then he should rather go buy Chinese stuff.

    Ok, back to my business. I've been at it for about 13 years. I always enjoyed making stuff so I started making all sorts of stuff om the side while I was working. I made more and more different things and each sort of led on to the next. I left full time employment and started doing my own thing on a full time basis about 10 years ago. Although we turned over quite a bit of money it was a big mess as far as I am concerned. I only really started to figure out how to formalize the business this year. I'm fortunate in that I have absolutely brilliant business and financial support, if it wasn't for that I would have been down the toilet long ago. My business problems have never been "business problems" yes I know it sounds strange but let me explain. All the problems that I faced were as a result of my own inexperience and stupidity. One has to be careful to separate issues: Not being able to sell is not a business problem, it is a personal problem. You see, I didn't understand that I have to learn to run every aspect of the business efficiently, I always tried to solve the wrong problem: like trying to fix income by selling more when the productivity is the real problem. Another thing is not understanding the math, when a person says asks you to project your expected sales and expenses for the coming year they don't mean just thumb suck what you would like to happen, they mean you should use your history and actual figures to project forward. This is why the numbers are so important. Unless you know every single cost and expense that goes into your product you are running around in circles.

    I've read lots and lots of entrepreneurial, self help, business and wealth creation books but as far as I am concerned they are mostly rubbish. They are written by academics who are not streetwise and unfortunately street wisdom is sometimes not pleasant nor PC.

    Ok, so where to from here. I would be very careful to enter into an unknown market armed with an idea only. You have to understand that there are players in every single market who will catch on to what you are up to and will copy or smother you sooner or later. This is a simple fact of life and you should be prepared for it. The best thing is to have another product ready and move on. The whole business of copyright and patents is a waste of time for the little guy, climb in, make your money and climb out.

    I can write a lot more but I think that you should get the gist of what I am saying: start small, don't take too many risks and stay under the radar while you learn. You will be surprised how much money you can make by quietly going about your business without drawing too much attention to yourself.

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