Hello Friends, first post.. first question..

Innerstatejt

Hello Everybody.  MY name is Jason and I live in Riverside Calif. To introduce myself, I am a DJ/Producer and mastering engineer. I also train people on music software. I have, as you can see, wrapped my life around music which has been a good thing, but now I am interested in expanding outside of this realm. I`ve got a question and I know it`s going to sound very vague, but I think to leave it open for interpretation can bring many varied responses and I completely welcome that. So here goes.. I consider myself an `Idea` person. I always have the big picture but usually can`t be bothered too much with the details. For example, I`ve come up with some great software concepts that many of my friends thought would do incredibly well. I am not a programmer, I don`t know how to build a websiteand I don`t really know how to market these type of ideas. I guess at the moment I am an army of 1, but I would like to know how to build a team capable of doing what I cannot. It`s not that I can`t learn how to do new things, it`s just that I would rather do what I do best and let the experts do what I am not able to do. I know this is a pretty big question, but I would love to hear about how othershave taken an idea and turned it into a successful business.all the best,Jason
Innerstatejt2006-10-17 20:15:56

Mabeline

Hi Jason,
A couple of things come to mind for you:
1. Go to a music trade show such as NAMM (I think this is right) and scope out the exhibitors to see if anyone is doing anything close to any of your ideas. This will do two things: 1) If they are, you can see what they`re missing and hone your idea. This also is a good sign as it confirms, perhaps, that there is a market for your idea by third parties who think they can make a profit. 2) If no one is, then you can, in very vague terms, talk to those who might be interested in your idea to see if it sparks the same reaction as your friends.
2. To me, the fact that you found this site says you have a bit of a business sense outside of being an "idea" person. I guess what I`m saying is be careful about calling yourself only that. I`m an idea person who actually loves the detail of planning and bugdeting - as these exercises balance me out and give me the best picture of how to proceed.
3. Ideas take money, generally speaking, to bring them to some workable reality - often called a prototye (if I sound a bit lectury, I apologize - I make no assumptions.) Living in Riverside you are close to some great universities. Go to their music department or computer science department and ask around for a student who is a programmer and musician. Perhaps you can get someone to implement your idea as a senior project. With a prototype all of  a sudden your idea has value others can wrap their brains around.
That`s if for now.

Innerstatejt

 Thanks guys for the responses. There was very good advice and some good things to think about. Most of my business ideas are not music related at all, and some are. I suppose if I really think about it, my hang up isn`t neccesarily the details, but more of building the capital neccesary to launch an idea. Without any capital you have to pretty much do everything yourself and that often isn`t the best approach. The most you can ask from your friends if they aren`t getting paid is some half assed contributions that will rarely follow your timeline. Am I being pessimistic here or am I missing a better way? Has anyone here presented an idea and gotten a loan that was enough to launch a business? Would love to know about it whether it be a coffee shop or an amusement park cheers,Jason

Chuck

Jason - if you`ve got a concept/idea that really has legs, and a friend or friends who have the programming skills to make it a reality, the question would seem to be one of finding the friend with both the skills and the vision to see what it could become.Under that scenario if I was a skilled friend who was convinced by your pitch, I`d dive in for no pay as long as I knew I`d `own`, in an equity sense, an appropriate portion of the venture.