Yet, on occasion, I still meet many excited idea people who believe so firmly in their idea, that they block out everything to pursue the costly patenting, product development and more, only to end up broke and drowning in inventory of a gadget that has no buyers.

I do advise protecting your IP, I do advise spending wisely on R&D but there is nothing to prevent you from doing the basic components of a business plan and market research prior to spending a single dime.  You can uncover need in the market without divulging your IP and you will certainly learn key insights from your potential customers that can drive the product design so it is even better than you originally imagined.  Do your market research first and everything else will work better and you will save money and time.

Well, when you are headed to raise money, sell an idea, etc. you have to be quick on your feet and know 3-4 levels deeper than what actually goes into your bizplan.  You have to distill that to a 15 page power point and when you pitch, you’d better be ready for anything.  I’ve never met anyone that can read a full bizplan, memorize it and be ready to take any one of the areas on in detail when put on the spot.

Sure, paying thousands of dollars might get you a plan that gets you in the door with angels and VC’s but I’d bet against your success in the pitch.  I’ve seen too many pitches in my life go really bad and even then, those people did their own plan.  You have to nail it and frankly, if they are not willing to do the heavy lifting – research, interviews, etc, then they shouldn’t be in business.  This tells me they don’t care enough.

Why would you enter the ice cream business if you aren’t willing to go taste the flavors of all the places in your neighborhood and interview neighbors on their thoughts about the ice cream available to them today?  The same applies for any venture.  You don’t have to write it in the end but if you don’t do all of the research, interviews and due diligence, then you shouldn’t be in the business.

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/haque/2009/05/unnovation.html

There is a particularly fun show I catch now and then called “On Surfari” where a young couple travels the world surfing. One particular episode they surf great breaks in India on what is one of the saddest and most polluted beaches I’ve ever seen. The town council is excited to hear why these Americans chose to visit and surf – something rarely seen in this area. They invite the local news people, cameras and hosts to tell them how they can attract more tourists and more revenues as a result. The couple tells them to start with cleaning the beaches, providing infrastructure like waste management, educating locals on pollution and sanitary behaviors and giving locals other services to keep the beach free of abuse while providing jobs for the poor. Well, the council members were clearly not happy with this basic advice. They wanted to hear about advertising and spreading the word outside the country and more. They didn’t get that without a clean, safe, sanitary beach, they would never get the draw needed. 

Why was this advice so poorly received? Is someone telling you something you need to hear but you just aren’t accepting?