John's Music Blog

Several times over the last two months, I’ve been approached by people saying something along the lines of, “I’ve got this great idea for a new product that could generate millions of dollars in monthly revenue, but I don’t have the time, money, or expertise to develop it.  What should I do with my idea?”  A similar question was posted on LinkedIn, and I took the time to post an answer.   My answer to the question in turn prompted a small flood of additional requests, and I received, for what it’s worth, the LinkedIn designation, “Best Answers in Business Plans,” by the guy who posted the question.

I encourage you to take a look at some of the other answers that were posted.  For those of you who don’t want to take the time, however, I’ll sum up.  Here are the Top Five responses to what you should do with an idea for which you have no time, money or expertise to develop. (more…)

I can not stress enough the importance for startups of having a good web-hosting service and good web presence.  One mistake that I made in launching Walden Technology Partners, Inc., was in not first hiring a website designer (in our case, my niece), finding a good webhosting provider (in our case, HostMySite) and getting the site up and running from day one, when I changed my LinkedIn profile.

Evolving a blog from one that is a single orator addressing an audience of none into an interactive and supportive community of like-minded entrepreneurs requires some real work.  And I am getting a great deal of advice on the topic.  Here’s a sampling from my expert-in-residence, my brother, Ken.  I received the following advice from him today:

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My brother, Ken, has often said, “If you focus narrowly enough and spend a few months researching intensely, you can become the world’s leading expert on a topic.”  The key here is focusing narrowly enough.  As you can tell, if you clicked on the link, Ken became, if not the, at least a leading expert on affiliate marketing. 

Because Ken focused on affiliate marketing, he created something else which is valuable for many of you who are trying to launch a new venture.   He created a community.  And from that, he also created a virtuous sales and marketing cycle.  Ken started with a service, which he developed, sold and delivered by himself. Later, he built training materials and supported the authoring of several books, which, indirectly helped promote the service.  He’s now developed a conference business that helps promote the training materials, which helps promote the service.  More than that, however,  he has built up a community of similar companies and actively promotes and speaks at the conferences of his competitors.  And I’m reasonably sure that he retains at least a small sliver of the revenue that passes through his affiliate program to a competitor.

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