The cost of ideas

I caught up with Tim Bull from Binary Plex / Trunkly last weekend and the conversation turned around to the concept of ideas generation.

It’s generally accepted in the start-up world that ideas are cheap. “Anyone can have an idea, it’s all in the execution.”

As Tim pointed out ideas are relatively cheap but when you’re coming up with a marketing plan or idea for a new web company ideas are actually really hard. Well, ideas that matter are hard.

To paraphrase Tim: “It’s easy to come up with any old idea but you need one that fits your skills set/knowledge base, where you’ve got access to the market your idea speaks to and an idea that you actually care about.” 

That’s not easy, not many ideas fit that Venn diagram. I would know, I’ve been working on product ideas for awhile now and am yet to find that sweet spot.

I’d know. I’ve spent the last year working on products for clients and internally and just a few have truly hit the sweet spot. 

It’s the same in marketing. You need to find campaign ideas that tick a lot of boxes.

They need to be relevant to your product or service. They need to be relevant to your customers. To execute on them they need to fit within your budget of money, time and resources. 

These ideas are hard which means they’re also expensive. They take time to find the right one. But don’t rush it, it’ll come.