Brief Overview

Do you want to see if your idea will work before spending a whole bunch of money on it? Follow the steps I outline in this episode.

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Big Ideas

Why I turned down a billionaire client [00:30]

I recently got a phone call from a gentleman in New York. His name is Peter. He runs a very, very successful real estate business. In fact, his company is doing $1 billion in terms of real estate sales. Crazy, right? A billion like with a B! Anyways, he was looking to hire me for a day of consulting but in the end, I’m like, “Dude, you don’t even need to hire me.” And here’s why…

Peter wanted to share what he knows about buying real estate with a lot more people. But the problem is, he just doesn’t have a lot of time. He doesn’t have a lot of time to create content or build a following. So, his idea was to get qualified candidates to sign up to a two-day shadowing experience, where they could come in, be a fly on the wall, and Peter would teach them everything there is to know about how to buy real estate. The problem is, he wasn’t sure if the idea was worth pursuing.

The truth was, he didn’t need to hire me in order to figure out that problem! There’s a much better approach to finding out if an idea is worth pursuing…

One of the best ways to validate a business idea [05:42]

If you’re looking to validate an idea, my advice is to get in motion. Make a post on Facebook, explain what you’re thinking of doing and if somebody is interested, encourage them to send you a private message and you can follow up with additional details. If they’re not interested, no big deal, as it didn’t cost you a thing. If they are interested, guess what, now you can move forward knowing that you’ve got real interest.

The importance of generating business momentum early on [06:41]

Oftentimes we as entrepreneurs get this big audacious beautiful vision of what we want to accomplish but sometimes it gets so big and so complex that we never actually get moving on doing anything. In the beginning, the most important thing is for you to get some momentum on your side.

Here’s some quick action steps:

1. Put a post out on Facebook that explains your idea. Tell people that if they’re interested, to send you a private message. If you get a bunch of messages, you know you have an idea worth pursuing. If you don’t get a bunch of messages, you just saved yourself a ton of time.
2. If people do send you a message on Facebook, simply follow up with a couple of questions to find out if they would be an ideal candidate for this type of event.
3. For qualified candidates, throw out a tentative date and ask them if they want in.

Memorable Quote

“When it comes to validating an idea, my advice is just to start small and get going.” – Stu McLaren

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