Brainstorming & Decision Making

Since last weeks’ post which was a coaching session, I realised a number of things:

• I need to start writing down and validating every single idea… in the past, I have had ideas and went back and forth on them without making a decision, and then new ideas come into my head that replace old ideas… then I got back to the first idea and remember “oh remember that old idea…” without validating anything. I’ve realised that this is a procrastination habit. Rather than just diving in a going with an idea, I just jump between different ideas without making any decisions
• In addition, I realised that there’s no harm in continuing what is working… my amazon product that is working is something that is bringing in (small) revenue for me…one of my issues with creating a brand is that I don’t have a huge amount of money. So, I’ve realised that there’s nothing wrong with continuing to develop products in niches – building up capital, and then maybe in the future one of those products could build / grow into a brand.

So…What Steps Have I Made?

The coaching session was really good for me. I managed to get myself some clear next steps which I have quoted below:

24. What is one step you could take right now that would indicate you were moving forward?

1 – Write down all past ideas

2 – Brainstorm new ideas

3 – Create a short list of the best ideas based off of: competitor research, search volume and trend data.

4 – Make a decision and go for it.

So where I am is currently stages 1 and 2. I have wrote down my past ideas, and all current ideas that I have. I am in the process of validating each to come up with my short list.

So far, I have brainstormed 3 ideas. Only 1 idea seems to have legs but doesn’t fit with my long term vision of brand building – however, this could be developed into a product idea and marketed using paid social which could help to get some revenue/money behind my business.

As a next step, I am going to brainstorm more new ideas and look at different industries. I watched video this week on YouTube, which analysed the brand ‘snow’ teeth whitening. It was an interesting video as it explained how the founder of this company approached this product and how he made it a successful brand. He took a boring industry where branding was very clinical, and created hype round a gift type product. My next step is to continue with my analysis in different sectors to see where there could be a gap in the market or a niche that could be grown into a brand.