An old nugget from doshdosh.com:
Making money anywhere involves understanding the value of your business, idea or website. Are they profitable or are you attempting the impossible by trying to squeeze blood from a stone?
We all have many ideas on what types of money making websites to set up and we often execute these ideas only to find them withering due to neglect or intense competition from others.
Knowing when to terminate a project is just as important as starting one. By cutting off these additional channels, you can focus exclusively on the ideas that will actually make you money.
According to a Forbes article on this topic, there are three main reasons why you should consider dumping your great money making ideas. Headlines below come from the article, comments made are mine.
1. Paying Customers Never Show Up
Are you getting sales? What do your visitors say or think about your online business? Is your website or service well received? These are some points to assess once a project has been initiated.
If you don’t meet your goal forecast, reevaluate your business model or tweak it to better fit the target market’s needs. If you still don’t make money after all these efforts, terminating or selling your business will help you avoid unnecessary costs.
At bottom, it doesn’t matter how ingenious your product is–if you can’t communicate its value, it may as well not exist.
2. You Can’t Sustain a Competitive Advantage
It is important to have a long-term plan to cope with other competitors in your field. If your idea is truly novel, you should expect a bunch of copycats. To succeed to constantly adjust your website to provide an unique selling proposition.
Allocating a significant portion of your income towards consistent marketing and promotion is always a good idea after the initial site launch.
Remember: Your idea is what gets you in the game; your competitive advantage is what keeps you there. If you can’t figure out how to stay ahead in your market, start looking for a new one.
3. You’re Not Ready To Quit Your Day Job
A great money making idea only reaches its full potential when you support it 100%. You need to push your idea as much as possible if you truly believe it. If you are passionate about professional blogging, giving up your day job to focus on your projects is a move you will eventually have to consider.
Chances are, if you’re going to make that leap, you’ll do it sooner rather than later. Commitment to an idea spurs action. Driven entrepreneurs can’t wait to hit key milestones–incorporation, building prototypes, drumming up customers.If you’re not moving fast, it’s probably time to move on.
If your idea fulfills all the above conditions, it might be better to drop it in favor of another idea that would fare better. My personal belief is that most ideas will turn out to be profitable if you have in-depth industry knowledge, sufficient personal networks and the will to sustain it through the difficult initial growth period.
Play it smart and be intuitive when building your business empire and you will eventually generate a lucrative income from all your businesses or projects.
I think this is a nice read. That said, allow me to engage you on one point. People keep saying that to sustain competitive advantage, I need to be innovative. I need to come up with new and creative ideas all the time. Although this argument sounds convincing, I never fail to be amazed by the sort of mundane ideas that Kenyans use to make money.
Did you know that the famous Dr Manu Chandaria makes tissue paper? Would you ever think of going into such a business line? What of making biro pens like Chris Kirubi of Haco Industries does?
None of these two guys have invented a Google or Facebook or Ipad of their own, but they are making money. What is my point? I feel that flawless execution of good or even mundane ideas can still be a money minter. Said in another way, if a shoe maker makes shoes that fit my feet well and last a while, he will make money. If a real estate developer builds a house that I find comfortable to live in as a tenant, he will always have money in his pocket.
Knowing Kenyans as well as you do, would you back good execution of common ideas or the marketing of new innovations?
Unfortunately the Chandarias and Kirubis already exist.
An entrepreneur in this day and age has to be creative in two ways:
1. Either attack a boring industry (e.g. tissue paper) in a creative way to give him a chance of beating the incumbents
2. Come up with a new/modified product or service
tranx, I agree with you entirely.
Let us peek into the crystal ball for a moment. Assuming that we are not quitters, and keeping in mind Dr Bitange Ndemo’s enthusiasm about the upcoming Konza ICT Park, what do you see in the future? What sort of IT innovations would you expect or hope to see coming from that place?
Assuming the park becomes a success, will it be Kenyans leading the ICT show, or the usual suspects from India, Europe and America?