There are two major areas of finding an idea where people break down.
They can't identify an idea at all They have too many ideas and don't know where to get started
Let's break these down.
#1 Barrier to Making Money: I don't have an idea at all
This one is common. Here's a hint: Most people think only of themselves and what they'll pay for. And since most people are cheapskates, they think that nobody will pay for anything.
Wrong: Go walk in a mall or at a local market. People pay 5x for organic beets at a farmer's market. They pay $5,000+ for weird-looking art. And they pay virtually anything for their kids and pets.
People pay for value (Walmart). They pay for convenience (housecleaner). They pay for simplicity (Apple). They pay for motivation (personal trainer) even though they could technically work out on their own.
The question is:
What can you offer that they'll pay for? And how can you find out?
No let's look at the second major failing in finding a profitable money-making idea.
#2 Barrier to Making Money: I have too many ideas and I'm overwhelmed
Having too many ideas can be just as paralyzing as having no ideas.
A comment from last week:
My other hesitation is with ideas. I have over 10 ideas that recirculate through my head on a weekly basis (i’m an Aries, it’s normal.) Some I have put into practice and then let slide, while others never got finish or started. How does a person like me stick to one idea? Or is there a way to use all my ideas in one business?
First of all, are you seriously telling me your horoscope when it comes to building a process for making more money?
Anyway, see if this sounds familiar. You’ve spent all day thinking through your 50 competing ideas for earning more money. You could be a chef! You could create iPhone apps! What about a website? Maybe teaching music. By 9pm you've run a mental marathon, yet you have nothing to show for it. You've reached analysis paralysis, where your quest for finding the “perfect” freelance idea (by thinking and analyzing the idea but not doing it) keeps you frozen at step 0.
Then, even if we get past this initial paralysis, we can end up spending so much time building up an idea — naming the idea, designing business cards for the idea, putting up a website and figuring out exactly how to describe it to our friends — that when we forget the most critical part: seeing if there’s actually a paying market for that offering. After all that work, it’s easy to give up, exhausted and frustrated. I'm getting frustrated right now writing this and I'm contemplating violence.
Remember, just like in the dating world, you probably won’t find your right match the first time, second time, or even the 5th time. That’s where MOST people give up. Instead, I want you to think about building your idea generation system to test, measure, and refine until your idea is earning you your first $1,000 on the side.
