1. FYI – Finding Your Idea!

2. Agenda • Understanding Entrepreneurial Impact • Generating Ideas • Evaluating Ideas • Focusing Startup Efforts

3. Importance of Small Business • 6 – 7 % of US population is in the process of starting a business at any given time • 53% of new small businesses begin in the home with less than $10,000 • Since 1980, Fortune 500 companies have lost five million jobs, while the United States as a whole has added 34 million new jobs • American small business is the world’s third largest economy, trailing only the U.S. as a whole and Japan • Median net worth for self employed $335,600 compared to $67,200 for those that worked for others

4. Significance of Innovation • Entrepreneurs account for 67% of inventions and 95% of radical innovations since World War II • Small firms produce more highly cited patents than large firms • Small patenting firms produce 13-14 times more patents per employee • Small companies represent 65% of new companies in the list of most highly innovative companies in 2002 • Louisiana’s Blue Ocean economic development strategy

5. What’s Up? Generating Ideas

6. Getting Started… • Personal Inventory • Broad Environmental Survey • Focused Investigation • Unique Interpretation

7. Look INSIDE • Genuine Interests and True Passion • Professional and Personal Resources • Entrepreneurial Characteristics and Aptitude

8. Explore ALL ABOUT (Generally) • Involve Others • Listen to Friends, Acquaintances, and Mentors • Solicit input from Vendors/Suppliers, Customers, and Regulators • Converse with New People, Strangers and General Public, Other Majors/Industries • Be Original • Notice Unexpected/Unusual Uses and Different Applications • Observe Social Behavior • Pay Attention to Daily Happenings, Events, Ordinary Living • Tweak or Twist Existing or Old

9. Reach OUT (Intentionally) • Immerse Yourself • Specific Information • General Information Sources • Demographics

10. Interpret/Analyze uniquely • Break The Rules • Question Habitual Responses • Explore Familiar Surroundings, Similar Circumstances, or Advanced Areas • Break Your Routine • Honor and Develop Your Imagination, Dreams, Fantasies • Explore Your Intuition • Reexamine Failure

11. Generating Ideas • Have Lots of Ideas • Method of Capturing • Be Open • Build on Ideas • Multiple Solutions • Simple • Don’t Judge • Become a Collector

12. The question is not what you look at but what you see.-Thoreau

13. So What? Assessing Ideas

14. Your IDEA – why yours is best • Description of Unique Capabilities and Function • Demonstration of Value Created • Solves a Real Problem Better Than Alternatives • Benefits and Advantages, Not Just Features • Competitive Situation • Stage of Development • Proof Establishing Technical Feasibility • Rights to Use • Preventing Duplication or Imitation • Additions and Sustainable Advantage • External Factors

15. Your MARKET – who will buy it • Initial/Primary Target Market • Describe Characteristics • Segments of Target Market • Define Expectations • Real and Specific Pain or Need • Overall Potential of Primary Market • Potential of Secondary Market(s) • Projected Sales • Credible Research Data

16. Your METHOD – how you do it • Organizational Systems And Capacity To Perform • Activities and Abilities That Create Value • Arrangements For Mutual Benefit • Estimated Cost & Charge to Customers • Approach for Transferring to Customer • Suitability and Superiority of Basic Routine • Scalability and Future Capacity Requirements • Plan for Generating Sufficient Revenue

17. Value Proposition • What Your Customer Wants/Needs • Specific Benefits/Results You Provide • Ways You Surpass Competition or Alternatives • Summarizes Why Product/Service is Bought

18. Idea Assessment Guidelines • Why Trends Occur • Acknowledge Intuition, but Support with Data • Fact Based • Learning, Adapting, and Improving • Avoid a Poor Choice and Survive • What about Someone Else • Be Patient and Persistent

19. Exercise: Invention Example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpvEF_GIhmw

20. Exercise: Invention Evaluation • Inside - the personal/internal factors • About – external environment/situation • Out – external assessment/information • Unique Perspective – analysis & interpretation • Defining Idea • Characterizing Market • Developing Method • Understanding Value Proposition

21. Now What? Acting on the Idea

22. Beginning to PLAN • How You Want to End • Define Major Actions • Identify and Address Challenges • Experience and Abilities Needed • Advisors and Assistance • Estimate Funding/Resources to Start and Grow • Plans for Securing Needed Funds • Attend Learn B-4-U Launch on January 18

23. You Already Have What It Takes Kathy Wyatt, Director Technology Business Development Center Louisiana Tech University P.O. Box 3145, Ruston, LA 71272 Phone: (318) 257-3537 Fax: (318) 257-4442 Email: kwyatt@latech.edu