Image by Orin Zebest

One of the biggest roadblocks we’ve come across when working with people who want to become location independent is deciding upon and then implementing an idea for their location independent business. The thought process seems to go something like this:

I must decide upon the best idea for my location independent business…I think I’ll try this one. Oh wait, no I can’t launch it because I don’t know enough about it yet so I’ll just do some research first. Hmmm, I haven’t done the research because I’m not sure that idea will work. Back to the drawing board.

And this happens over and over and over again. And before you know it, a year or more has passed and you are no further along with your ideas and you are no closer to having a business or income stream up and running yet. There is but a single remedy for this and you know what it is?

Implement your idea

Just think about this…

If you’d built that website you thought about a year ago, it could be making some money by now. Maybe peanuts but it’s something. And you know what you’ll also have gained in the process? More knowledge, more lessons learned and more experience.

If you didn’t build that website, what have you gained? No website, certainly no income, no more knowledge, no lessons learned and no more experience. It’s really a no-brainer.

But does that mean you should go right ahead and implement that idea you’re currently musing on? With no market and competitor research? No adwords testing? No consumer demand research?

Absolutely not (although unless it requires you to invest huge sums of money, you’re probably not going to lose too much and learn quite a lot if you do, but that’s up to you).

As somebody who has worked with numerous start-ups, freelancers and solopreneurs and helped them decide upon the *best* business idea to implement, I always give the following advice to clients:

Do the research

It is not hard to do basic research and determine whether your business idea is viable. There are a few tips & words of advice I’d share with you here:

• The higher the investment required in starting the business, the more research you need to do
• The following kinds of basic research are sensible to start with:
  • Competitor research: investigate what else currently exists within the marketplace
  • Market research: investigate/estimate the current size of the marketplace and its predicted growth (or decline)
  • Consumer demand research: investigate the level of demand for the products/service you’re planning to offer
• Leverage free & cheap online tools to conduct your research – this includes sites like Alltop, 43Things, LinkedIn, Google Adwords and eBay.

Define what “best” means to you

Whenever a client asks me which the “best” idea to implement would be, I respond with this question:

What does “best” mean to you? Does it mean most profitable? Most fun? Quickest? Most hands off?

It’s likely to be a combination of most of the above but it helps to ask yourself whether the best business idea to implement for you is one that:

• Requires a lot of upfront work but is more hands off in the long term (the more passive streams of income)
• Requires minimal upfront work but is more hands on in the long term (the labours of love)
• Requires a moderate upfront work and moderate ongoing effort (professional services like consulting, web design etc.)

And of course you’ll need to think about the revenue potential – most may be best, but not always!

Are you prepared?

Are you prepared to do what is necessary to make this idea work? Are you prepared for the long hours, the steep learning curves? The possible lack of rewards, monetary or otherwise?

If you’re not, then don’t bother starting it. And by “making it work”, it’s also important to set yourself measures along the way to know whether something is working or not. Knowing when to stop and walk away is as valuable as knowing when to start.

And lastly, remember this…

Doing is usually better than thinking. You will never know whether a good idea is actually a good one unless you actually do something to implement it.

You can do all the research you like, find all the initial proof that something is going to work but unless you actually build it, implement it, launch it, you’ll just never know.

And in the end even if it doesn’t work, you’ll have learned far more than you’d ever have done if you were still thinking about it.

This is the first post in a series designed to help you start and build a location independent business. These posts are, as always, free for you to read and implement. If however, you need more help you might want to check out The LIP Business Guide which has the in-depth detail you’ll need in each of these areas.

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