Though we don’t feel it yet, the new year is just around the corner, so we think it’s the best time for you to start thinking about business in 2018.

Do you have new ideas to grow your business in 2018?

There’s no such thing as a valuable idea. Ideas are fundamentally worthless and all the value is created in the implementation, so as quick as possible you need to turn ideas into products.

An idea goes through a certain number of cycles in order to become something of value:

Cycle 1: Having the idea and then turning it into a ‘mess’, such as rough documents, hand-drawn images, mind maps and outlines.

Cycle 2: Putting the idea into a very rough format and turning it into a briefing document, so that you can brief a professional designer who is good at turning ideas into a first-generation product and something you can take to market.

Cycle 3: Releasing a beta version to get feedback from your market. Most businesses go bust spending thousands of pounds trying to create the ‘perfect’ product without actually knowing what their market wants or if they can even sell it.

Cycle 4: Taking that feedback and then reinventing the product again. This time you’re trying to create a commercial version which you can actually sell for money and generate some revenue.

Cycle 5: Gaining more feedback from your market, and constantly refining your product/service into what we call a remarkable version. This is when people find your product/service so engaging and professional that they’re willing to recommend you to friends.

Next, you actually need not just one product but several products working as an ecosystem, each one being delivered to your market in stages. You’ll need to create an entry level product that your ideal client can easily access (a book, an online video/audio), all the way up to a product that your ideal client will purchase after working with you.

Check out this quick video below where I discuss how to turn an idea into a product, and a product into a business:

This is just one way to prepare your business for growth in the new year. Join us in Birmingham on the 13th of October for Influence and Assets, where our industry-leading speakers can share even more ways that can set your business up for a bigger 2018. Learn more here.