Up and Running:

Starting your business with growth in mind

By Tim Berry
Forget It. Your Idea Has No Value.

Another question in e-mail today that I can’t resist sharing, along with my answer. Here’s the question:

I believe that I have ideas that can make great money in the hands of real entrepreneurs. I do not want to be the one who spends my whole life applying them, writing the business plan, looking for money, finding the right team, etc. How can I sell business ideas or investment ideas without becoming an entrepreneur myself?

… and my answer:

Forget it. The idea has no value. If it’s worth anything, a thousand other people have the same idea.

You don’t believe me? OK, prove it. Prove me wrong. Make your idea work. Find a management team, write a business plan, get the funding, and–whoops–you just became an entrepreneur.

I could go on, I suppose (actually I did in the real e-mail), but this is a better answer. Right to the point. And I have posted on the value of the idea before on this blog, in Ideas are Easy, Doing Stuff is Hard and a couple other posts, and on bplans.com I posted an article in the same general mode called Protect Your Idea.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 4:00 am and is filed under business ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.




Leave a Reply


  • About Me Visit My Site
    MORE FROM TIM BERRY
    15th Anniversary Edition. Looking for a fast, easy way to create a business plan? This popular software solution offers 500+ sample plans, step-by-step guidance and more. Your words, your numbers. Let the software do the mechanics.

    Download Business Plan Pro Today!


    Email Management made simple. Never stumble over shared email again.

    Sign up now!


    Marketing Plan Pro 11.0 powered by Duct Tape Marketing is simple, practical marketing plan software that makes it easy to plan and carry out the marketing activities you need to grow your business.

    Download Marketing Plan Pro 11.0 Today!


    BOOKS BY TIM BERRY
    The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan is out now, done, and available for order ...

    It's in stock at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Borders.


    3 Weeks to Startup is in final production, due out in October, and is available for preorder ...

    At Amazon.com, at Barnes and Noble, and at Borders.

  • Recent Posts

  • Categories

  • Archives

  • I was podcasted on Small Business Trends Radio
  • Books I recommend

  • TED talks

    ted.com
  • Facebook