Tips on how to execute your winning idea

I was taught by my mentor Dj Loop that business is like a relationship; when you make a promise, make sure you deliver on it, for the consumer might have fallen in love with you because of that promise you made.

Last week’s article talked about breeding your idea into a functional plan and some elements of execution.

The article touched on fear and how it affects your execution. Passion is a strong pillar when building that ‘plan’.

Patience has never stopped being a virtue, being realistic in this world full of new ideas and plans is a good start in executing your plan.

Over the years the debate has been reduced to ‘is it the idea or the execution’ that matters.

Personally, I feel that the idea and execution go hand in hand. You might have a revolutionary concept but if the execution is poor and it proceeds to see the light of day, the consumer will never get the full experience.

As a result, they may never give the product/service a second try or even refer other people to try it out.

You see, we come about most of the daily apps that we use to run most errands through referrals and not necessarily from adverts.

I remember when I first used Uber and Taxify, I was so excited and with the same excitement that I got from my friend I passed it to my circle of friends.

How could you order for transport and before the driver comes you have a choice to cancel or know the estimate pricing? Pretty awesome, right? It’s been ages since I was convinced by an ad to purchase a product or a service.

Think about it. In as much as this generation lives on social media, how come they are investing more in the organic way of information or introduction to a new product, i.e. referrals. And since times are changing, how can you change your product execution plan to suit the “have you heard about this new app” space?

Referrals 

So what I did I made a unique product and never put it on social media. The only marketing I did was when I was selling it to someone.

Then the chain reaction started, the following day I got three calls from the ‘friends’ of my consumer.

After delivering my product to the three, I got more and more calls. Before I knew it, I had created a product that was fast moving with totally no marketing budget.

I put out the same challenge to the forums I speak at.

Most young people dwell on the grounds that marketing is a difficult task and undoubtedly it is. But here’s how to make it easier.

The mindset

My primary school teacher once told me that the mind is an untapped resource.

You know how you hear most things while growing and they sound good but you can’t put a meaning to it, this was one of them. 

While making any business move, you should put as much energy on mindset as you do on capital.

All decisions are made from one centre which is the mind.

You might have all the capital in this world and have a poor mindset, best guaranteed that your train is bound to stop in the near future.

Investment

When we come across this word, most of us think money. In this context, I am referring to time as an investment.

Time can be split into so many fractions, all of them equally important but time used in research is a vital one.

I remember when I set up one of my companies, its growth was slow and I had no money to pump into it to accelerate that growth. But at least it was growing.

What I did at that time was to learn all I could about how to grow my business.

Idea and execution go hand in hand. We usually fail because we put emphasis on one and forget the other.

I have learnt the hard way and from my mistakes I can warn the next business generation.

Remember there are no new inventions just new executions.

The writer is an award-winning artiste and entrepreneur.