Why Start With 3 Niche Ideas?

Ken's Blog

Why does the SBI! Action Guide suggest that you start with 3 potential niche ideas? I'll tell you a short story to explain why...

When I was a professional toy inventor, just about every major toy company in the U.S. sent Canadian inventors over to me. (They don't see amateurs for several reasons.)

My #1 job, I realized, after agreeing to see these folks, was to keep them from mortgaging their homes.  They were so convinced that their idea was THE next big thing, the greatest thing since Monopoly. And, of course, they all knew the stories of how Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit (and other famous ones) had all be turned down by the big companies.

Their ideas were all uniformly terrible... not original, or boring, or, or, or...

Not a single marketable idea. In fact, I was mostly lucky with my first product idea. After that, I started learning more and more about what it takes to invent successful toys and games.

Janice and I developed well over 100 of our own ideas in order to sell 23. We were always excited about the ideas, we always pushed them, but after that first one, I never had that "be all and end all" feeling again. It's a dangerous (to your bank account) feeling. The stories of Pictionary and TP, etc., are lightning-in-a-bottle stories that cause more bankruptcies than anything else.

The truth is that most people are not used to getting ideas. And when they do get one, they're convinced that it's their only one. Their best one. That they'll never get another one.

Asking for three ideas?  It forces you to look inside, to dig deep. The Action Guide does allow you to cheat a little if you're a dentist and your site is going to be about dentistry because you want to grow your local business. Even then, though, it asks you to spin three different ideas from dentistry.

That simple exercise in DAY 2 of the process has opened many people's minds to the fact that their first idea is not always (heck, not usually!) their best one.

All the best,