Enterprise idea planner
Our Enterprise idea planner is the perfect tool for people who want to use their skills to develop a campaign whilst in education, an opportunity at work, or/and setting up a business. The plan can help you to establish the key ingredients/skills, highlighted within the Enterprise Journey tool, needed to bring your own enterprise idea to life.
If you haven’t yet decided on an idea, why not use one of the below as a starter point?
- Doing something that benefits your community, like a club or fundraising event.
- Finding something which could be done better at work, like introducing a new process/ way something is done.
- Starting a business based on something you love.
If you’re serious about starting a business, once you have completed the Enterprise idea planner take a look at our Business start up planner to work through our guide to writing a business plan.
Download an editable blank version of the plan to fill in as you work through the steps below or start by viewing the example version for more guidance.
1: Create your idea
Some good ideas ‘fix’ something; by coming up with a useful solution to a problem. Others ‘fill’ an opportunity, taking advantage of a current market gap. Identifying your problem or opportunity is the first step in being enterprising.
The Problem/Opportunity:You may already know something you’d like to do. If you don’t, observe and discuss peoples’ daily lives with them and take note of where they face challenges. These challenges could be problems you could solve, and the start of your journey.
More from LifeSkills on this:
Five stages of problem solving
Putting problem solving into action
The Solution:
You now need to think of ideas to fix the problem (but remember these need to be achievable with the resources you have). Explore solutions to similar problems and think about what works and what doesn’t and why. Learning from other people’s mistakes can help you come up with a better solution.
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Creative thinking - putting it into action
2: Research your idea
Researching your market and audience (the people that will benefit from your idea) allows you to tailor your idea to accommodate their specific needs. It can be the difference between your finished idea being a success or a failure.
There are lots of different methods you can use to help determine your idea and audience:
- Focus groups
- Online Research
- Questionnaires
- Interviews
Cost:
It’s important to research how much your idea is going to cost to put together. This could determine if it is achievable or not.
3: Make it happen
You don’t have to try to do everything by yourself. To make your idea happen you may need to form a team around you to help you complete more tasks or tasks that require other skills.
Tasks:
Create a list of tasks and prioritise everything that you will need to do to make your idea happen.
Team:
Having a team can help you to finish tasks more quickly than if you were to do them alone. You’ll need a team with a good mix of skills to bring your idea to life.
4: Persuading others
Persuading people to support you with your idea is often known as pitching. You need to communicate your idea in a concise and engaging way to inspire people to put money, time or effort behind it.
Include what your idea is, what the research showed, who your target audience is and how your idea will help them. You may want to talk about costs and the team you have built around you.
5: Reaching your audience
Choosing the right way to communicate your idea to your audience can make or break your idea. If no one knows about your idea it is never going to help them solve their original problem. Make sure you choose a method of communication that is appropriate for letting people know about your idea, that also grabs their attention and gets them interested.
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