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Cleaning
out
your
mental
closet
Author:
Ryan
M.
Hoback
Everyday I meet with a client who has new idea that they are
absolutely ecstatic about developing. These ideas range from new
spins on traditional car washes to complex financial services
companies that service a wide range of needs. Unfortunately time
and time again, these client?s have a great vision of what they
want to create, but there are absolutely stumped on how to bring
their ideas into a practically applicable setting.
This is the most common problem amongst entrepreneurs and
inventors; how do you turn your thoughts and ideas into a
business reality. Well, the first step is figuring out how to
translate the mental projections and emotions we are
experiencing into a written statement. I like to tell my clients
that they should begin with a blank piece of paper, place their
pen in the middle of it and write the first word that relates to
their idea down on paper no matter what that may be. This method
was first presented to me as well as most of you in elementary
school art class; we have just let it slip our mind. In art
class when the teacher told us to draw something and we could
not visualize it, the teacher would have us draw a dot in the
center of the page to stimulate a vision while we moved our
hands around; this concept can be extremely useful in
brainstorming. Placing a thought in the middle of the paper
allows us to develop a chain of emotions and reactions that play
from our visions and ideas. We then deliver it to paper by
tracing it out in an outline format, similar to a family tree or
timeline.
I usually suggest drawing circles around each thought and
creating lines that connect from each is inter-related idea. No
matter what our methods may be, if we start by placing a single
word or phrase on our paper that represents our business ideas,
it will create momentum to start translating our thoughts.
Once we have finished the rough draft of our thoughts and ideas,
we should start organizing these thoughts into paragraphs that
expand on them. We should implement small mental rest periods
between each brainstorming revision and session because we want
to have a fresh approach to our work in order to maximize the
utilization of our creative abilities. After developing our
rough ideas into a working business document, start researching
information that will help support our ideas and serve as a
basis for helping develop demographic details and product /
service specifications. This information will help us create a
realistic plan for the operations of our business, as well as
serve as an initial guideline in approaching the financials of
the operations. With a rough conceptual vision and documented
research information, we can now begin to start practically
applying the information into an organized business plan.
The most important part of cleaning out our mental closets is
not to let ourselves get overwhelmed by our own intensity and
excitement for our project, channel that enthusiasm into the
sales and marketing aspects of our business. Take time to sit
down and map out our thoughts like a giant tree with each leaf
containing ideas. When it comes time for winter and those leaves
fall off the tree, reorganize them into a neat pile and that
will serve as the building blocks for our business plan. There
are new and wonderful ideas created everyday, it is our job to
follow through with those ideas and find a way to develop them
for the world to see. Keep innovating, constantly creating and
always stay motivated!
About the
author:
This
article
was
written
by
Ryan
M.
Hoback,
Mr.
Hoback
is
the
Founder
and
President
of
The
Motivated
Entrepreneur,
a
business
incubation
&
consulting
company
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