Five Tips To Help Select Your Best Business Ideas

Five Tips To Help Select Your Best Business Ideas. Hello everyone, I hope you are well. In today’s post, I will be sharing a guest post from Chris Thomason, author of ‘Freaky Thinking; thinking that delivers a dazzling difference. Chris will be exploring five practical advice on selecting your best business ideas and taking them forward. When you’ve got many creative ideas that can help address that big issue you’re struggling with, what’s the next step? You can only take a small number through to execution, but which ones?

Five Tips To Help Select Your Best Business Ideas

Having many creative ideas when facing an issue at work is excellent. But how many of those ideas will make it through to execution? And how do you choose the best ideas to take forward?

Target Your Win Quicklies

Quick wins and Win Quicklies are quite different concepts. A quick win is a small, noticeable action that has no regrets attached to it. In contrast, Win Quicklies are ideas that can be implemented rapidly and are designed to test or validate an exciting aspect of something that holds greater potential.

These small Win Quicklies can often provide more value than larger ideas because they help minimize risk for the team executing them. They also allow you, as the creator, to see results sooner. Typically, it’s better to have several Win Quicklies being implemented rather than one larger, slower-moving project. Many organizations prefer to see how a Win Quickly can demonstrate that something more substantial has the potential for success and value.

When evaluating each idea, you may discover some convey a theme or principle rather than a specific action that can be taken. Don’t dismiss these broader ideas. Instead, consider how you might transform each of them, even partially, into a Win Quickly.

Prioritise Your Win Quicklies

To compare your ideas and identify the best ones to pursue, you can use a Win Quickly matrix. This two-by-two matrix measures how easy it is to implement an idea on the horizontal axis and how effectively it proves something on the vertical axis. Start by placing your first idea at the center of the matrix and then add around ten other ideas, comparing their positions relative to this initial idea. You’ll find that ideas that are easy to implement and provide substantial proof will land in the top-right quadrant, while those that are hard to implement with low proof will be in the lower-left quadrant.

Prioritize the top-right quadrant first, where you will find high-impact and easy-to-execute ideas, as these are the most attractive. Don’t overlook the top-left quadrant; ideas in this area may also have high impact, even though they are more challenging to execute. Be cautious with ideas in the lower half of the matrix; they typically exhibit lower impact and may not be worth your time to pursue.

Combined Concepts

The ideas you’ve developed that don’t make it onto your Win Quickly matrix or fall into the lower half might still hold value. These concepts need to be novel or exciting, but they might not stand alone in their current form. By combining several ideas and reshaping them, you could uncover hidden value you haven’t noticed yet.

For instance, merging two or three ideas might create something more appealing. Alternatively, two ideas could spark a completely new thought that surpasses the originals. Linking one idea with others may also lead to a spectacular concept that addresses aspects of your issue you hadn’t considered before.

You won’t discover what’s possible until you experiment with combining your best ideas to ignite more creative thinking. Keeping several ideas in mind can be challenging.

To help integrate your ideas, try writing each one on a sticky note. Then, pair them up in different ways to see what each combination triggers in terms of new thoughts. Feel free to create additional sticky notes to enhance your brainstorming process. Remember, it’s never too late to generate more ideas that can add value and tackle your main issue.

Boost Your Ideas On A Test Drive

You now have several ideas that you believe will address your big issue, at least partially. However, you’ve approached it from your own viewpoint. Other people may see things differently, and you need to consider whether your proposed solution should include their perspectives. Take your ideas for a test drive by seeking feedback from others—they might bring valuable experience and knowledge that can enhance your ideas.

As you compile your ideas into elegant and practical solutions, be open to shaping them based on the input you receive. Treat each potential solution as a work-in-progress rather than a definitive answer.

Think of this process like an artist with a canvas. You start by placing your concept in the center, but you leave space for other viewpoints in the foreground, background, and sides. This collaborative approach adds depth and value to your work. If someone points out challenges your idea might face, ask them for solutions to overcome those issues. Incorporate their suggestions into your canvas to enrich your overall narrative.

A practical way to organize this is to write each final idea on a single sheet of A4 paper. Develop your ideas around the edges, drawing connections to what leads to them and where they might lead next. Include comments from others to ensure you capture all elements that contribute to a compelling story for your stakeholders.

Selling Your Solutions

You may think that offering a complete and packaged solution to the big issue will see you being hailed as a hero by the vital stakeholder you’re sharing it with. But that’s rarely the case.

A senior person is likely to have more knowledge than you of activities underway in your organisation that your proposal needs to align with. So be flexible. Sell your proposal as an adaptable solution from which they can support, shape, and benefit. Explain how you’ve engaged others in your thinking, as this helps show you as a team player and how relevant people have validated your thinking.

Leave some things open to change and interpretation as you sell the idea. Re-use the story canvas approach with your concept in the centre and the surrounding areas to be shaped by the stakeholder to suit their needs. They may have to involve other stakeholders to make your suggestions happen, and they can use this flexibility with their stakeholders too.

Leaving your concept in a position where it can be directed and shaped is your route to success. How it gets amended as it progresses is immaterial. You can’t know or control these elements. However, your idea is still being discussed and ultimately implemented.

Using visuals and words that encourage different interpretations through ambiguity can be helpful. Similarly, you can offer a range of options for any solution to encourage alternate thinking about how your concept might look. Allowing stakeholders to suggest changes, or ways to implement them, shows interest from them and helps you gain buy-in for your proposal.

I hope you enjoyed that.

Talk soon

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris Thomaso Tomason’s ngenious Growth helps organisations change their thinking to boost innovation, productivity, profits and, most importantly, staff satisfaction. After buying a failing manufacturing company and turning it into one of the largest in its sector, Chris now teaches the innovative ways of thinking that led to his business success. Chris authorises eight business books: The Idea Generator, Freaky Thinking, and Excellence in Freaky Thinking. Chris’s clients include UPS, Canon, O2, Vodafone, Roche Pharmaceuticals, Touchnote, Lloyds Bank, Toyota, HSBC, Scottish Widows, South African Airways, American Express, and many more.

Web: www.ingeniousgrowth.com