Bad Economy, Great Business Ideas

Campbell’s Chicken Noodle soup, McDonald’s, the Hula Hoop, UPC codes, Diet Coke and Apple Computer; these companies and products are so ingrained in our minds that we fail to think of them as brand new ideas that could either make it or break it. At one time people and companies bet their livelihoods on bringing all of them to market and all were introduced in bad economies.

Campbell’s Chicken Noodle soup was introduced in 1934 right in the midst of the Great Depression. Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald’s during the 1955 Eisenhower recession. During the same recession the Hula Hoop debuted in 1958. UPC codes were introduced during the Vietnam War and an oil crisis. Diet Coke came to market during the most severe recession since the Great Depression in 1982. Apple introduced the first iPod in 2001 while many other technology companies were crumbling.

There is a lesson to be learned here. You can either bury your head in the sand when times are tough or you can take your great idea, use it to change people’s lives and make a fortune doing it. The choice is yours.

Here are a few tips if you truly do want to bring your great idea to market.

1. Take a chance. The bigger the chance the greater the rewards.
2. Once you make a decision be confident about it and don’t look back. Hindsight is 20/20. You are where you are now because of the decisions you’ve made. Right or wrong, deal with it and move on.
3. Quit worrying. Matthew says “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
4. There are no mistakes. The lessons you learn by doing are invaluable and usually less costly than going to college.
5. Ask yourself “What’s the worst that can happen?” It’s usually not that bad so why worry?
6. Step out of your comfort zone. Nothing great is ever accomplished with taking a risk.
7. Do. What’s holding you back? The missing ingredient between a great idea and the money it could bring you and your family is action.

"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." – T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia)