How to Turn Your Ideas into Profitable Products
Starting your own business or turning your ideas into money-making products is no small task. If you are a creative or innovative person, then this blog is for you! This article will give you a few simple principles to follow that will help ease your way into creating a marketable product from any great idea that you have.
The intent of this post is to give entrepreneurs and innovators some new ideas about how to turn their start-up ideas into realities. By learning how to create value for yourself, understanding how to generate passive income, and recognizing the benefits of enduring assets you will be able to utilize an improved method to get your start-up off the ground!
Value Creation
Creating value for yourself and your ideas is extremely important when dealing with your start-up idea. Because of colonialism in both the economy and innovation, it can be very difficult to turn your brilliant idea into a reality, simply because of a predetermined “status” in a company. In the innovation field, colonialism stems from the notion that great innovators and designers should be solving problems and coming up with new ideas. What they fail to understand is that they should actually be teaching individuals how to solve these problems through their own creativity and skill sets.
This is an issue on the economic side of innovation as well. Companies and businesses want you to believe that you must be offered a job in order to create value for yourself. But why should that be the case? If you have a great idea for a new product or service, you can take it upon yourself to develop it and generate the value that you want!
Grasping this concept of being able to do the things that have value to you will allow you to pursue the things that you are passionate about, which in turn can bring greater possibilities for your ideas. Placing value on yourself and your ideas is one of the first ways to begin moving forward with your start-up.
Generate Passive Income
There are two main forms of income: active and passive. Active income is the most common in modern times, which we most often see as a salary or hourly pay. It is essentially the standard way of paying workers, however it does not allow for increases in wages as often as it should. The only ways to really increase active income are through promotions and pay raises when the business decides that you deserve more money.
The idea with passive income, though, is to create something that brings in profit and that profit continually grows over time. A great analogy between these two types of income is that with active income, you work for money while with passive income, money works for you.
Another excellent example of generating passive income comes again from co-director of the Peace Innovation Institute, Mark Nelson. He tells us to imagine a child growing up in a third-world country. His parents can pay a few hundred dollars annually to send him to school where he learns the same thing as all of the other children, or they can pay a few hundred dollars one time and buy him a phone. With the phone he can teach himself how to code and develop apps, which people pay for, bringing him passive income. Over time, as more and more people use his app, he earns even more money.
The goal here is to come up with an idea or product that can pay itself back in a relatively short time after its creation. Once it is out to market, you can either improve the product or create more, and both options lead to more money for you.
Assets
When it comes to making money, there is some sort of transaction between two parties, typically where money is exchanged for a product or service. In this transaction, a product that is physical or has a certain value, is a durable asset, which is usually something physical of a certain value. Durable assets are helpful because they can create an immediate benefit for both the buyer and the seller: the buyer now has something that they need or want, and the seller gains a specified amount of money.
Mark Nelson, co-director of the Peace Innovation Institute, gives an excellent example of how durable assets work. Let’s say that a Person A sells pens and a Person B is a student. If Person B needs a pen to complete their homework assignments, they go to Person A and purchase the pen, paying the amount of money that Person A requests. This seems like a win-win situation, right? Both parties gain something they need in exchange for something that was previously of value to them.
However, there is another type of asset that can be even more beneficial to individuals in the long run. Enduring assets are assets that multiple people can have at the same time without losing their initial value. A great example of an enduring asset is knowledge. It doesn’t cost anything to have knowledge, and as it is further passed along to more people, an increased number of people can share the value of knowledge.
A large component of enduring assets that does not necessarily come with durable assets is the relationship between individuals. Through this relational capital, people and businesses can form long-lasting ties that become increasingly fruitful over time.
Conclusion
The three main jumping off points you should think about when you want to start getting your start-up ideas off the ground are:
Understanding how to create value for yourself and your ideas
How to create relationships that lead to enduring assets
Generate a product that will bring in passive income
If you want to learn more about these topics, don’t hesitate to get involved with the Peace Innovation Institute!