What’s the Big Idea?

How to Go from Idea to Business

Everyone who's ever taken a shower has an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference. Nolan Bushnell

Welcome to another edition of “The DE Blog!” It’s Entrepreneurship Week and since we’re a small business, founded by an entrepreneur, this week means a lot to us. As a result, we want to go all out to celebrate entrepreneurs and give helpful advice on how to turn your passion into purpose, and, hopefully, into your profession. One of the ways we’re doing that is through our blog. 

Every day this week we will blog about a topic surrounding entrepreneurship. Feel free to leave your comments on the blog or share them with us on social media via Facebook (Diplomatic Enterprises, LLC), Instagram (@diplomatic_ent), or Twitter (@DiplomaticEnt). First up in the Entrepreneurship Blog series, “What’s the Big Idea?” 

Entrepreneurs are no different than average, ordinary citizens in that they have ideas, dreams and often ask, “What if?” The major difference between them is that entrepreneurs act on their ideas, chase their dreams and pursue answers to their questions. Most people can readily identify problems, fewer ponder solutions, and it’s entrepreneurs that embark upon the quest to find the answer and figure out how to monetize it. It’s this dogged quest for innovation that makes entrepreneurs so special. However, an idea does not a company make. 

A company is a legal entity that engages in business; by definition, it’s not an idea, a process, or even a product. Your idea about flying cars is just that, an idea. Your method for manufacturing flying cars is just a process and your flying car is just a product. However, the moment you take the idea, the process and the product, form a legal entity (in accordance with local, state and federal regulations, which we will touch on in Part 2 of this blog series) and get to work, you’ve got a business! The hard part is getting from idea to “The Jetsons.” No worries, we’ve got you covered. 

The first step is to have an idea, a hobby or a passion. The best companies are born of ideas, necessity, innovation and love (see, HelloFresh, Noirbnb/Noirebnb, WeWork, Bee Sweet Lemonade). Once you’ve identified the catalyst, the next step is to do the research to determine whether you have a hobby or a hustle. A hobby is what you do simply because you want to.  A hustle is what you do because you must, either due to socioeconomic pressures or because you can’t fathom a life without it. If at the end of the inquiry you believe you have a hustle, do the research and test the theory. 

Ask your friends, family, and neighbors and combine their answers with your research to determine whether what you’re doing is novel, fresh and potentially profitable. CAUTION: DO NOT TELL EVERYONE EVERYTHING OR RISK HAVING YOUR IDEA PIRATED. History is full of inventors who stole ideas/inventions they were credited with (Galileo, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison). Give as few details as possible to illicit an answer without giving away the entire operation. If it’s cookies, give them a taste, not a box and the recipe. 

Once you’ve passed the friends and family stage, the next thing to do is to become legit (that’s a legal term) which we’ll cover in Part 2 of our Entrepreneurship Series: Getting Started. We’d love to hear your comments, so feel free to leave them below. Thanks for reading and come back tomorrow!