Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Ok I just came up with a business idea for an internet based service that I believe to be pretty brilliant. The thing is I`m only 22 years old and have very little experience on how to build upon an idea like this. I`m looking for a qualified person to go in on with this idea and try to make it a reality   ( obviously without the idea being stolen ) , could someone please tell me the best way I can go about at this?

First of all, don`t count your age as a hinderance. There are teenagers on
here with working web businesses. Age is irrelevant to success.

Experience is another issue. And there`s nothing wrong with wanting to
find out more info from others. If you really believe in your idea and want
to follow through with a partner, then I would suggest doing some study
on business basics and finding the right people. There are books, articles
and info all over the web, including here, about "getting the right people
on the bus".

Check out the 10 steps as well found on this site. Before you start taking
too much action, start getting your head in the right mindset. Those first
steps will help. And hopefully energize you!

Having an idea and not knowing how to make it happen isn`t an age issue. It`s common across all ages, and a topic of conversation here on these forums. Your age is really only a distraction, so don`t let yourself get distracted. :-)

Suppose you`re traveling and you see a very large log home. It`s got three stories, a wraparound porch, beautiful windows, landscaping, a fantastic roof, and a marvelous view. You see this home and say, "Dayum..! That`s a helluva log cabin!"

An idea is like anything you see, and the log cabin is no exception. Do you think to yourself, "Now all`s I gotta do is go buy a log cabin, figure out how to move it, stick on some really fine ground, and I`ll be all set!" No...of course not. :-)

You look at it, and start to examine what went into making that home. Each piece of wood and all the hardware had to be cut or machined. The blueprints had to be developed. Nobody just started knocking together a house willy-nilly, hoping they`d end up with a great looking place.

Someone had to survey the property, level the foundation. Someone had to find the property, buy it, make sure it was zoned for log homes. Someone had to gather and organize the contractors, builders, carpenters, designers, and so on and so forth.

Any idea is the same. Just seeing the final vision is hard enough for many people, and they`re just not used to doing it. They`re not used to exercising their imagination. But it`s still only the first step. I serves the purpose of firing up the passion, and the desire to create. Is that enough?

We live in an age where imagination is frowned upon. We`re told from as early as toddlerhood that our imagination isn`t real. It`s in the way. Day-dreaming is non-productive, doing homework is productive. So how does anyone learn how to use their imagination? How do you train it to not only show you the final product, but all the many steps along the way?

Practice :-)

So what would be the very first step...the one before ALL others, like looking for a piece of ground on which to build the house...that you would need to start this idea?

here you go:

step 1: see if the internet service exists today
step 2: see if anyone has tried to perform that service (either online or brick and mortar version)
step 3: if there truly is no one doing the service try to find out why - with there aren`t enough customers, price is to low/high, there is no market, etc.

sometimes people try to hard to develop a truly unique idea - when at times all it takes is improving upon something existing. google for one example. google was not the first search engine - but what they did do was develop an algorithm to provide more accurate searches than anyone else. word of mouth spread that google was the best search engine and the rest is history until another better search engine is created.

myspace is another example - they were not the only networking website, facebook is one that comes to mind. but they did what they did better than the competition.

my 2cents


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No Eternal Reward Will Forgive Us Now for Wasting the Dawn.