How to turn an idea into a business

Ok here's the definitive guide based on years of study and experience, well ok 5 minutes of Googling at least....

1. Necesity is the mother of invention
Or, as I like to say, dissatisfaction is the father of capability.

There needs to be a need. And for a need, someone needs to be dissatisfied with how things are now. In short, a problem. People will flock to your product with money in hand if they think it'll solve a problem they have, or think they have, or if the product is just plain sexy.

2. Who are the needy ones?
Who needs your product? i.e. what's your market? Is it a person, or a collective mass of disillusioned people formed into a company, government, or other organisation? Maybe even it's a thing, or an alien requiring human PR services. Whatever, whoever, do they have money or something to barter with?

3. Get help
You're a nutter for even having such a nutty idea, consider therapy or else get some other nutters to back you up, or pay some normal people to humour you. A good start is to join a group of nutters like this one.

4. Reality check
So you're seriously thinking to build something and sell it? How are you going to do that and what's it going to cost? Then how much will a needy punter pay you? And are there enough of them to make a profit?

The blurb also says: "map out your mission, objective, keys to success, target market, competitive advantage, and basic strategies"

I say: see step 3.

5. Imagine you're in the Dragon's Den
Find someone with a wad of cash, decide how much you can clean them out for, and what you need to promise them in return. Apart from wetting your pants, what are the risks? And the rewards?

6. Build it shit, but not too shit
hmm not sure about this, apparently it's called MVP, or minimal viable product. I think it means you should allow for bells and whistles to be added later, don't worry too much about them at first, just get the thing out, but get it out working.

7. Realise you got it all wrong
Flog it, see what happens, ask lots of questions. Maybe you should have built something completely different? No problem, you can build something completely different. You can do it all again. You can do the funky chicken dance.

8. Have a cigarette
Maybe you don't smoke, but you deserve one. Hey, take a holiday too, why not?
Now go back to step 1.

Good luck & enjoy!


References: 
* 8 steps plagarised from here
* Free business advice available here, from the government of booming Austrarrgghlia. Seek the bushy southern triangle famous for seafood.
* I didn't read this but it looks like it might be handy
* if you need a boring picture for a business presentation, here's one
* need some ideas? Don't look here