I applaud great business ideas and I tend to think about them more than I think about a lot of other things. When other people come to me to talk about their business ideas I get excited and if it’s a good idea I excitedly tell them to “Go for it!” Of course I support business planning but if there’s a good idea I’m of the mind that it needs to happen.
Until last month.
About two months ago a writer friend mentioned that he was getting a lot of marketing questions from his clients which he was handling freely. The questions were starting to come fast and furious and were beginning to take up more of his time so he mentioned that he was thinking about starting a second business to handle marketing consultation.
The idea was sound and after talking about it I encouraged him to begin business planning. He was skilled in the topic, it wouldn’t be that difficult to start up a “sister company” to his existing company, and the customer base he sold to seemed to be a ready market. After all, my thinking went, a great business idea should be acted on.
Then last month we met for coffee and I inquired about how his new business idea was going. He said that he was still thinking about it. Often when I hear that I assume that the person is either procrastinating from the business planning stage or is slightly scared of jumping off the proverbial cliff into something new and exciting. Our friendship allows us to be frank on this matter so I asked him if it was one or the other.
He told me the answer was that it was neither: while the business idea was sound and he was gathering material for a business plan, he actually had to think first about something else: His initial idea of marketing consultation was not something he could actually offer because that put him in direct competition with most of his clients. A majority of his clients were marketing businesses that would outsource some of their writing work to him. The marketing questions they asked him were from one expert to another in the way that businesses tend to be when two experts work together. But by starting a marketing consultation business, he would no longer be working alongside his clients; he would be directly competing with them.
Is the idea dead? Not at all! We spoke for some time about tweaking the idea so that it would not directly compete. The challenge now, of course, is finding a market for it. But at least it would not mean the loss of current business as a result.
This reminds me of another story: a friend whose business success turned him into a local celebrity. As a business person he welcomed the success, but he is also a very private person and did not like the spotlight that shone brightly on him. So uncomfortable was he that he sold his business and moved away.
Normally I would jump onto business ideas excitedly but there are occasions when it is not appropriate to do so. If you have a great business idea, count the cost and consider what the ramifications might be if the business does well.
