One Simple Idea Book Summary - One Simple Idea Book explained in key points

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One Simple Idea summary

Name: One Simple Idea
Rating: 4.2 (35 reviews)
Author: Stephen Key

Stephen Key

Turn Your Dreams into a Licensing Goldmine While Letting Others Do the Work

4.2 (35 ratings)

22 mins

Table of Contents

One Simple Idea
summarized in 12 key ideas

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What is in it for me? Learn how to start your business with only one simple idea.

Have you ever seen a product and thought, "I could do better than that"? Or, while browsing the store shelves, been suddenly struck with a great idea that will fill a gap, and think: "Why hasn't anyone invented this yet?" No matter what your inspiration or motivation is, now’s the time to make something out of your idea.

One Simple Idea will teach you how to turn your passion into a business and bring your product to market yourself. The author provides a roadmap to guide you through the sticky terrain of developing your one simple idea into a fully realized successful business, providing you with tools and useful advice along the way.

This book in blinks answers the following questions:

What does it take to start my own business?
How do I bring my product into the market?
How will I be able to grow and manage my business?

Seize the opportunity to bring your idea to the market, and find an experienced mentor.

You might think that, given the recent economic downturn in the U.S., now would be a bad time to create a product and attempt to bring it to market.

But you’d be wrong. Even during a financial slump, consumer spending in the U.S. accounts for 60-70% of the national economy.

Be passionate about your idea and ready to take full responsibility for your business.

Starting a business for the first time can be scary, and you might even find yourself wondering if you’re cut out to be an entrepreneur.

But no one is born an entrepreneur. Like other apparently innate “gifts,” being an entrepreneur is actually learned, and the first step is to make yourself aware that starting your own business requires, above all, passion for your idea and unyielding persistence to get that idea off the ground.

Your idea has to be simple, marketable and profitable.

One of the main reasons startups fail is because their idea is too ambitious and too complicated. So, if you want your business to succeed, you should start small and keep it simple – and the simplest way is to make a small modification to an existing, successful product.

This offers a number of benefits:

Write a short, focused business plan, and start small and simple.

So you’ve developed your product idea and gotten to know your market. What now?

First, it’s time to make a business plan. This is an invaluable step in setting up a profitable business as it will force you to describe your business clearly and concisely: what you’re doing, how you’re doing it and why. It will also help you to forecast your financials — i.e., projections about revenues and expenses — and thus ensure that your business will be profitable. And if you’re looking for external financing, you’ll need a business plan to present to potential investors and to get feedback on your business concept.

Protect your business idea by outsmarting the competition and building partnerships.

If you care about your business idea, then it’s natural to be afraid that someone might steal it.

Fortunately, however, there are several ways to protect your great idea from the competition.

When launching your business, try to use your own money and get whatever “free” money you can.

Even if you start small and simple, at some point you’ll need cash. Of course, there are many funding options available to you. The simplest way, however, is to use your own money and avoid any external obligations as far as possible.

This is because people tend to work harder to keep their own money; they don’t spend it as freely as borrowed money and tend to have more control over it. After all, would you spend your own money on a business-class flight without a second thought?

Find the right manufacturer and set up your supply chain carefully.

If you can’t make your product at the right cost, you’re not going to make a profit. It’s essential, therefore, to find the right manufacturer. Most contract manufacturers specialize in a certain area, so some might have the experience and expertise you need to produce your product.

To find the right manufacturer, you need to vigorously investigate those you’re considering, by, for instance, getting a referral from someone who produces a similar product to yours, and using due diligence when evaluating other potential manufacturers.

Pull the market and build relationships with your customers.

In today’s consumer-centric, highly-connected world, traditional so-called “push marketing” is not the most promising strategy for small businesses. Instead, what startups need is to understand their customers and to make their products all about them. In other words, they need “pull marketing.”

Nowadays, marketing is not about selling a product but providing value to your customers. Small companies have to let their customers know that they are able to give those customers with what they need and want.

To succeed in retail, place your product in the right stores, and create happy customers through great customer service.

To sell your product successfully, you have to get it into the stores. But which?

Fortunately you’re spoiled for choice: in the U.S. alone there are 1.5 million retail stores, collectively making more than $2.5 trillion each year.

Keep track of your business by carefully monitoring your finances and inventory.

If you succeed with your business idea, at some point your business will become large, busy and complex. As the captain of the company, it's your job to steer the ship, and the most important levers are your financials and your inventory.

Managing a business's finances is a crucial factor in managing that business effectively. This requires that you can pay the bills, so keep your finance records up-to-date and review your monthly reports carefully. You should also negotiate your vendors’ payment terms and incentivize your customers to pay on time so that you're always able to pay on time, too.

Before expanding your business into a new area, make sure it’s the right fit and be ready to sell it when the time comes.

When successfully growing a startup, you (like most entrepreneurs) will be itching to further expand your brand.

But you should be aware that this entails an increased effort in managing your business relationships, monitoring the quality of your products, and even involves hiring new people. You should therefore be careful about expanding your business into new areas, and first make sure that it’s the right fit for your brand.

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What is One Simple Idea about?

One Simple Idea (2015) argues that it takes only passion and one simple, marketable idea to start your own business. The book shows how building long-term partnerships with your manufacturers and vendors can help your business run smoothly, and how catering to your customers' needs and desires helps you sell your product on the market. In short, One Simple Idea gives concrete, firsthand advice for anyone who wants to get their one simple idea off the page and out into the world.

Who should read One Simple Idea?

Anyone who has a simple idea for a new product and wants to bring it to market
Entrepreneurs who want to start a small product-based business
Anyone interested in entrepreneurship and creating their own business

About the Author

Stephen Key is an expert on getting business ideas off the ground and has successfully licensed more than 20 simple ideas, generating billions of dollars of revenue. In One Simple Idea, Key shares the lessons he learned while starting, managing and growing his own small (later successful) company, “Hot Picks.”

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Motivation & Inspiration Entrepreneurship

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