Do Good Business Ideas Really Matter?

According to Wikipedia Richard Branson heads a collection of over 200 companies. In industries ranging from magazine publishing to international airlines and the bridal ware with the wonderfully named Virgin Brides.

However if you look at Branson’s success (and that of many other billionaires) you’ll soon see that there’s no big idea. There’s no new invention or stroke of genius. Usually his companies go into industries dominated by large lazy and complacent corporations (British Airways v’s Virgin Atlantic) and shake the market up.

While Branson is just one billionaire example it doesn’t stop there just think about how many car dealerships, takeaway restaurants, gyms or hotels are operating successfully. They aren’t original ideas but smart, hardworking entrepreneurs are still making money from them.

So stop worrying about the perfect business idea and start focusing on how you’re going to execute your idea better than the competition.

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  [...] One of the first commenters on my blog, John Crockett wrote a post yesterday about business ideas.   John argues that one does not need a new invention or idea to succeed.  I absolutely agree with John about taking an existing idea and “start focusing on how you’re going to execute your idea better than the competition.”  Waiting for the perfect idea to come along is an exercise in procrastination.  I wrote earlier about doing the “An Idea Strikes” routine over and over again, and if I were to continually chase the perfect idea dream I would never get any project off the ground.  Sometimes it’s better to take an existing business idea and try to improve on it.  The strength of a good idea lies in its execution.  Good ideas by themselves are not a guarantee that the business will be successful.  Consider Friendster.  Friendster was the first online social network and once considered to be the next big thing.  For various reasons, including mismanagement, Friendster flopped and was overtaken by another site with essentially the same concept, MySpace.  Friendster failed not for a flaw in the idea, but rather because of its poor execution.  So reconsider all your ideas that you thought were pointless because they had already been done and start thinking of ways of how to make them better than the competition. Share This [...]

  good ideas at imakesmoney.com on June 8th, 2007
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  I agreed with everything outlined above. When it comes to the likelihood of turning into a successful, profitable business, a good idea is only as good as the execution. Unfortunately, most budding entrepreneurs focus extensively on the idea generation part of a start-up only to fall short on execution.

  Trader on April 30th, 2008