Discover the tremendous value of your $100 Ideas.
I have a friend in New York City who works for one of the biggest companies in the world. Everyone knows this e-monster. It’s a technical marvel. And it seems to be taking over the world. Which means it’s a great place to work right now. But my friend, who I will call Flora, also has a strong entrepreneurial drive. She has several great startup ideas and is trying to determine the best one to pursue, and the best time to pursue it.
The Throw Away Ideas
Flora thinks big, and wants to create a really big business of her own. Which is to be expected when you work for a global giant. But she also has several interesting ‘small’ ideas that she quickly dismisses. Flora calls these $100 ideas, and tosses them aside the way you might throw fish back in the water because they are too small to keep.
Caution Young Grasshopper
I warn Flora against disregarding the $100 ideas. There is great power in them. In fact, more people have turned $100 ideas into $1 million ideas than have made a cent off of a billion dollar idea. This is because it is much easier to get moving on a $100 idea. As I wrote about in a prior post, the key ingredient to entrepreneurial success is action.
Take The Money Making Idea And Run
If you have entrepreneurial ambitions, or want to develop a side hustle, don’t dismiss your ideas because they are not likely to get covered by Tech Crunch. See the $100 idea as a great way to start and gain experience.
Your $100 ideas teach you how to create a machine to deliver products or services. They are they intro courses to business building. Once you get started you can always expand and scale them up. You may be surprised how much your $100 idea will ultimately be worth. But only if you get started.
Adam & Sleeve
My first real business was a $100 idea. I designed and sold T-Shirts under the brand name Adam & Sleeve. I learned all kinds of valuable lessons about operating a business from Adam & Sleeve that I put to good use when I started my advertising and idea agency, The Weaponry. The Weaponry’s revenues are in the millions. But it sprung from knowledge gained running a business based on a $100 idea.
Other $100 Ideas
- Mowing your neighbor’s lawn
- Selling those baked goods you are so good at making
- Handmade Jewelry
- Consulting
- Painting
- Raking leaves
- Anything on Sally Struthers’ list
- Delivering anything
- Healthcare Patient Advocate
- Animal Sitting
- Reselling wholesale candy at school
- Braiding hair
- Cleaning homes or offices
- Taking engagement photos
- Critter removal
- Posing naked for college art classes
These ideas can get you started. They can make you extra money. And you can scale them up and make even more money by growing volume. You can combine multiple $100 ideas, like mowing, snow blowing and raking leaves, then scale up to create a full-fledged yard care business. Or you could create handmade jewelry while posing naked for college drawing classes, and then sell the jewelry to the art students who drew you naked. #doubledip
Key Takeaway
Don’t underestimate the power of $100 ideas. Acting on them gets you off the sidelines and into the game. They help build entrepreneurial muscles, skills and flexibility. They build confidence and experience in sales, operations, quality control and customer service. But most importantly, they start the flow of self-generated income.
$100 ideas usually have low start-up costs. Which means they are low risk ventures that you can grow your own way (…grow your own way-ay-ay! #FleetwoodMac). You can decide how much you want to scale. You can also decide when you have learned enough to take on an even more lucrative challenge. Because an entrepreneur in motion, tends to stay in motion. Which means it is better to start with a $100 idea today than to spend a lifetime on the verge of putting a billion dollar idea into motion.
Originally published at theperfectagencyproject.com on March 17, 2019.