Earlier this week a friend asked me how I screen ideas for new businesses; how do I decide what to do next. Do I ask people I trust for their opinions? Do I look at revenue projections? The buzz on Techcrunch? What Google paid for YouTube?
I was about to write a post about this, but then I remembered something more important.
Back up. Start with what makes you happy. Carried away with ideas for new widgets, a lot of entrepreneurs never stop to think about this.
Do you hate working for someone else? If so, why? Is it just because you have a lousy boss? Changing your job or even your career may seem hard, but both are a lot easier than starting your own business. Or is it because you would rather bear all the responsibility for being wrong than be overruled and later proven right?
Do you hate having other people report to you? Unless you can find a partner who will do that while you make all the important decisions - and good luck with that search - you will be working with a handful of partners or all by yourself.
You have an idea for a product or service that doesn’t exist. Great. Have you considered licensing the idea to someone else? Or, since a raw idea is worth approximately zero, just giving it away? Or do you have good reason to believe that no one else could do it better than you can?
Do you value your free time? Do you "work to live, not live to work"? Or does the thought of bringing your idea to market make you happier than almost anything else in the world? (Don’t be ashamed.)
Do you enjoy spending all of your time designing new products or writing code or talking to customers? If you start your own business you will be lucky to spend 10% of your time doing what you most enjoy.
Does asking people for help or for money make you feel uncomfortable? Or do you think that when you ask someone to invest or work with you, you are doing them a favor?
Do you have a routine that make you very comfortable, or do you prefer frequent change? You had better like change. A lot.
What about your spouse and kids? Can they stand the upheaval? Or can they not imagine you doing anything else? Could you cancel a family vacation for the sake of a customer? An anniversary dinner? Miss your daughter’s holiday concert? This may not happen often, but I promise you that it will happen.
Can you deal with failure?
Finally, do you just want to be rich? Then become a corporate lawyer. The odds are better.
If you answered all these questions the right way and you are not running your own business, then you ought to be.
Tomorrow I will write about how I screen business ideas.
