Have an idea?? Just start...
I don’t have a shortage of ideas for businesses. The problem is that the next one is more outrageous than the previous one.
If I have to go down this road of building a business from an idea again (which I plan to do soon), I will do much more ground work to validate my idea. I've learnt that, to get past my habit of procrastination, it works to start something quickly and then to refine it by going through iterations with people that I am working with.
I remember one example from my consulting days... A friend and I had to write a short case study on a piece of work we did a long time ago and we both dreaded completing it. Well, we got it done by writing one sentence down in an e-mail, sending it for the other and asking for comments/changes to be made in red. 30 seconds later a reply with comments/changes came back, and the process repeated itself. I think we went through three or four iterations before our little piece was done.
The point that I’m trying to make is that people should start by writing something down quickly and be willing to change it based on feedback they receive (the whole productive interactions thing also comes in here). The iterating process that follows will either prove that you have a good idea, prove that you have a rubbish idea or refine your idea into a good one.
Considering the investment of time and money that goes into building a business, I would like to have real confidence in my idea as opposed to a confidence that roots from a fear of admitting that I am wrong.
OCL