Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I have a fantastic new idea for a program for my space and i have no idea where to start or where to look for someone that might be interested in creating this progam and maybe even splitting the costs and proffits for this idea, I am fairly new to the internet and although i did build my own website (still working on that) I seem to have problems with understanding half of the things going on online. you might say when that published all of those for dummys books they were thinking of me.

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susan hansen

This is starting to show as a "theme," I think: "I have an idea, I don`t know what to do with it, I need help."

Suppose you`re walking along a lake and you happen to notice a splash or ripple in the surface. You suppose that there are fish in the water. So you have an idea! You think, "I should catch a fish for dinner, right here! There must be fish in the water, as it`s water and fish live in water. I saw a ripple, probably made by a fish, so I`ll just call my family and tell them we`re having fish for dinner!"

Fine. Are you a fisherman? Do you have your pole and tackle? Do you have bait? Do you have time to spend fishing?

Or; do you have some dynamite you can toss in the water and collect the fish? Do you have a schedule or someplace you have to be, that would be problematic if you stopped to fish?

Are there any guarantees that the fish you catch will be large enough to feed the family? Should they count on you for that fish, and not go shopping for dinner?

ALL these questions have long-ago been systematically developed in the field of building a business. So we have terms for feasibility studies, market research, business plans, opertional goals, and so forth.

What we DON`T have, is a theory of ideas!

Having pondered and studied ideas from the philosophic perspective, there are two basic options for a theory. The first is that ideas are themselves actual entities---bodies of information that exist in some dimension outside of physical reality.

The second is that ideas are logic chains that spring together out of either random or organized observations.

Either way, an idea is simply a conclusion; a perception of how certain things might come together in a possible way to maybe create something tangible or valuable or useful.

Anyone can and usually does have ideas. They`re not ordinarily associated with making money, markets, financial transactions, and structured operations, but they`re ideas just the same. So what? To have a mind means to also (mostly) have ideas.

But what`s a "good" idea, and what`s a "bad" idea? How do you evaluate the idea as good or bad? Isn`t it first to determine if it`s actually possible or impossible? That means knowing that certain actions and events are actually impossible, no matter how many motivational speakers try to tell us that nothing is impossible.

So you have an idea. If you think you can accomplish it, then begin. To ask for someone else to act upon that idea is to interfere with what they consider to be a grand idea. OR...to ask for help making the idea into a reality. And that begins with a persuasive argument that someone else should stop what they`re doing, become interested in something else, then change the course of their activities.

The first step is to decide if you`ll do this idea yourself, or with others. The second step, if it`s with others, is to develop a persuasive argument as to why this idea is "more interesting" than what everyone else is already doing with their time.

So to answer the question: Explain the idea, why it`s good, how it has value, how it could likely be initiated, and what`s in it for anyone else in terms of justifying the expenditure of time and effort.

:-)

Wow, what a response, you know ive never looked at it like that and alls i can say is wow. ok, lets see for my next question, your good.  lets say this idea for a program is something i myself , as a mom sure could use on my daughters computer wether i am at home or not, and i have not seen a program for this anywhere on line or else where, and lets say i would prefer to give this idea to someone with the knowledge and funds to create this program and split the proffits another words talk to some one who might be interested in this idea and just take full control of the technical issues , sort of like a silent partner.

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susan hansen

Why would someone want to do all the work and give you the money in some form of percentage? What do you bring to the table other than "hey, here`s something someone ought to build?"

Building an idea takes a lot of work, knowledge, learning, and time. Unless you have the money to hire a programmer, or the brokering skills to line up the capital and then the programmer, I`d say you`re going to have to come up with a whole lot deeper plan on this idea.

hmm....there`s a term in programming, "pseudocode." It`s a step between talking in plain English about what a program does, and the final machine language of the executable program. The pseudocode is like a flowchart and decision-tree, wrapped into one. It maps out exactly what the program is doing at any given time (generally), what decisions must be made and acted upon, and what consequences arise out of those decisions.

This "map" gives the programmer the logic of the application prior to sitting down and actually coding the program using some particular lanaguage.

Although you may not be a programmer, you can at least start with a complete outline of exactly what you intend for this idea to accomplish. If you can`t, then I`d say to just walk away or post the idea on some board of "Things I wish someone would make." :-)

Thank you very much for your input and i have just one more question, are you some kind of a dr, your pretty good and funny too, i got it and thanks again for your help.

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susan hansen

:-) I`m not a doctor, but I play one sometimes, with my girlfriend.