If you’re lucky enough to have a good idea you might have just found your next business venture. But how do you value this idea? And does it have real potential worth pursuing? 

 

At this early stage of an idea, anything you haven’t launched yet is simply ‘perceived’ value. Many would say ideas are a dime a dozen and ideas have no value without execution, but don’t underestimate how powerful perceived value is even though it’s not generating cash in the bank or producing raving fan reviews yet. 

 

If enough of the right people believe in your idea, it could secure everything you need from attracting the right talent to securing funding to make it a reality.

So how does the perceived value of an idea work? Let’s say all ideas have a baseline. It doesn’t matter what this baseline is, it is a neutral continuum drawn through time. The important part is where you go from here, which depends on what you do next.

 

Let’s explore two common scenarios:

Scenario A: Actively exploring the perceived value. 

You openly share your idea with people. The more you talk about the idea, the better the quality of feedback you’ll get. Positive feedback increases the perceived value. If others feel the idea has legs, and you’re talking to the right people, they may well become your first investors or customers in the waiting for when you launch. (Yes, all this effort is not in vain – you could view this as pre-sales activity). 

Negative feedback on the other hand, provides an opportunity for you to evolve the idea and overcome any newly discovered challenges. Negative feedback can also highlight a fundamental problem with your proposition. Perhaps your target customers don’t view the problem you’re trying to solve as much of a problem at all and therefore your idea has less appeal. Perhaps your idea is only relevant to a very small market and therefore questionable whether it makes it a viable business. In this case, you can see this exercise as a saving grace and focus on something else.

But let’s say you overcome the challenges hurled at you, your perceived value climbs back up to the baseline. And if you then go on to greatly improve the idea, making it even more attractive to your potential customers, you increase the perceived value above the baseline. Well, then you know you have an idea worth pursuing.

Scenario B: Passively retaining the perceived value. 

You hold onto your idea, sharing very little and only to those closest to you.

Your idea remains for most part, undisclosed in the safety of your mind or notebook never to see the light of day. The perceived value of your idea sits at the baseline. But don’t get comfortable…

Over time, the perceived value may fluctuate depending on external factors. For example, you get a sense that your idea has great value when you read an article, or when some regulations change, or we get hit by a global pandemic, or every time you hear “if only there was a solution to that” – knowing you have the solution to that. 

You may be quite content waiting for the stars to align in your favour but perhaps what you don’t realise is the time for taking action most often than not, has a limited window. At some point your idea will inevitably become less relevant or totally obsolete as the world evolves. And the simple truth is that no one idea is unique to a single person and it’s only a matter of time when someone beats you to it because in the time you have taken no action, they have.

As entrepreneurs ourselves, we totally get it, your idea is precious. You aren’t ready to share and you may never be, but once that window has passed, another one may not come along or you just might not have another eureka moment to capitalise on.

So, are you ready to see where your idea will take you?

Sweqlink is a membership platform for people ready to take on their dreams, form a team and build a startup from the seed of an idea. People like you inspire us because despite life’s challenges, you see the world as your oyster and are committed to building a better future for yourself, your family, maybe even the world – we’re here to make that journey just a little bit easier.