Too Many Business Ideas?

I assemble teams of hyper focused people and do my best to keep my mouth shut with them when it comes to distracting ideas.

I firstly give myself permission to let the new idea fester at the back on my mind for a few days. Some 'billiant' ideas are quite clearly rubbish when you remember them again the next morning.

For the ones that seem feasible, I do a one-page business plan. How would this work, how would it make money, would it be profitable, are there any awesome features I need to write down while I think of them. This gets it out of my head and onto a piece of paper. The paper goes into a folder, and I don't allow myself to think of them again.

From time to time (normally when I get one of them stuck in my head once more, good ideas are like viruses) I review that folder. A quick look now reveals that 3 (of the 7 that are in there) remain good ideas (the others really wouldn't be profitable, though I might try some of them for fun).

Now I must compare those 3 to my current business - which energises me more? Energy is a combination of excitement (where the new ideas have an advantage) and revenue likelihood (Money is energy). I'm in an income phase at the moment (having recently moved my coaching business to the UK), and the income potential of my current business is far greater in the short term than any of those other ideas. So current business wins my energy, and if I really need to validate that in a thinking space I can.

Once I have a coaching income base once more, I will likely repeat that exercise and see if I can take on one of the others. By giving myself permission to have great ideas, and a process to nurture them based on my priorities, I manage to stay more focussed on the business at hand. Certainly, that works better than trying to ignore them (and, simultaneously, remember them for later!) in my brain.

Well I had my fair share of ideas.. I tried a few of them and failed miserably. In fact, the failure was so great, I stopped thinking about them for an year... Even though a few of them were fantastic and I saw them become profitable businesses like groupon! and manymoon. Alas, I guess I'll never be able to succeed.. Having so many failures, I fear that I will fall again... I am very cautious now

I look at how hard it is to do one idea well and realize I don't scale well across multiple ideas.

I typically write mine down in a notebook. If its a really great idea, it doesn't normally just go away. You'll keep running into situations where it would be useful if the idea was already a reality. If after a week or two you still can't let the idea go, you "may" have a keeper. Get some feedback from friends and fellow techies - figure out which idea has the best chance of success and go with that.

PS - Don't second guess yourself after you've made a decision.

PPS - Don't undervalue the work you've already done on your current project. Execution is harder than ideation.

PPPS - Lay off the coffee.

Yes im the same way. What ive learned to do is manage and organize the ideas. Some people are serial entrepreneurs. Ive found that i am this way. I have alot of ideas that im passionate about developing. So ive learned how to manage and organize them. Ive also learned to try to find people that are like minded. Which can take some trial and error. The one important thing is to not doubt yourself about this. Be trully passionate about your ideas and about developing them. People will see this and respect it and want to get involved. Also really develop skills around your ideas. Be it a strong business sense or a strong technical sense or a strong understanding of the market youre in. This will give you a stronger leg up and the ability to deal with multiple projects.

If you actually want to chat more about this and talk about your ideas send me an email. Im always looking to network with people.

I think its great creativity, but its important to train yourself to spend that creativity on one project / business. After all, Facebook didn't get developed by anything other than laser focus on dogged work ethic. If you can't put blinders on to build and grow a company, you will forever be busy yet not achieving much.