While many people dream of starting and building their own multi-million dollar business, most never get started.

And one of the biggest reasons for this is that they are unable to come up with an idea worth pursuing.

Having been in this position myself when I first decided to start my own business, I remember how frustrating it was, wanting to get started but not having any ideas!  And what was even more frustrating was reading and hearing about all sorts of people who were coming up with great "blindingly obvious" ideas left, right and centre.

"What's wrong with me?" I used to wonder, "I could have done that! They're no smarter than me! Why didn't I have that idea?!"

In fact it took me two long and frustrating years from the time I first decided to start a business (after my first year of full time work), to coming up with an idea good enough for me to quit my job and take action on it. 

Interestingly enough, many of the explanations I hear people give about why they are unable to have a good idea, are the same explanations I used to give myself when I was trying to get started.

Here's some of the most common ones I hear:

"All the good ideas are already taken."

"Everything people could possibly need or want has already been invented."

"I don't have enough ....(skills, knowledge, money)... to get an idea like that off the ground."

"It's so competitive out there that someone else has probably already started and will beat me to it."

And the classic, "If it was such a good idea someone else would have already done it!"

Do any of these sound familiar to you?!

Now no matter what your favourite excuse might be for not being able to come up with a good idea, they all amount to the same thing. You simply don't believe that you are capable of having a good idea.

And this is an absolutely critical lesson to get your head around. All excuses, including all the ones listed above, are nothing more than negative beliefs that you have picked up throughout your life, and which are now holding you back, preventing you from living the life you deserve.

The truth is that the ability to come up with great ideas is inside all of us, but like many of our hidden abilities we have never been taught how to use it! 

The first step to having more ideas is to recognise the problem for what it is. It's not that you can't come up with good ideas. You can!  Multi-million dollar ideas are being born as we speak by people who are no smarter, no luckier, no more connected, and no wealthier than you are!  And what millions have done before you, you can learn to do too.

Every single one of the excuses listed above are false. There is no truth to any of these at all. Somebody has to be coming up with all the amazing new ideas and opportunities out there, and if you ever want to get started it's essential that you start accepting that you can too. So if you have a mental block when it comes to coming up with business ideas, take some time to think about what you're telling yourself and make a decision to let go of any limiting beliefs today. Write them down and then screw them up and throw them away. There will be enough people coming up with excuses why your ideas won't work without you helping them too!

These negative beliefs cost me two years and have cost some people their whole lives. Don't let them rob you of your future!

In the next post we'll look at some simple techniques that I and others have used to start having great ideas all the time.

Stay tuned for Ideas Pt 2: Where The best Ideas Come From And How To Have Great Ideas All The Time!

Richard Liew started his first business at the age of 23 and founded the Rev Sales Network, a personal and professional development network for salespeople when he was 27. Along the way he has helped develop sales strategies for several startup’s, helped extreme sport ‘le parkour’ (freerunning) find it’s feet in NZ, and is a regular newspaper and magazine contributor on the topics of sales and marketing. He is currently working on a recruitment related internet business. Email Richard here.

One of the biggest things that prevents many people from starting their own business, is a lack of ideas.

How frustrating it is – wanting to get into the game but not being able to come up with a good idea to follow!

If this sounds like you then I have two pieces of great news for you.

Firstly, you’re not alone. This “lack of ideas” isn't just stopping you from getting started - it's stopping millions of others too! So first things first, you can stop beating yourself up and wondering what’s wrong with you.

And secondly, there is something you can do about it. Once you understand what’s stopping you having great ideas, there are things you can do to start having great ideas all the time!

Over the next series of posts we’ll look at:

·         Common misconceptions about ideas and what stops you from having them

·         Where the best ideas come from and how to start having great ideas all the time

·         How to assess whether an idea is worth pursuing

Stay tuned for ideas Pt 1: The Number 1 Obstacle To Having Great Ideas

Richard Liew started his first business at the age of 23 and founded the Rev Sales Network, a personal and professional development network for salespeople when he was 27. Along the way he has helped develop sales strategies for several startup’s, helped extreme sport ‘le parkour’ (freerunning) find it’s feet in NZ, and is a regular newspaper and magazine contributor on the topics of sales and marketing. He is currently working on a recruitment related internet business. Email Richard here.

While Vodafone's announcement that they will stop providing broadband services through the ihug brand, is consistent with their vision to be known as an international full service communications company, the move provides an interesting case study for budding marketers. So why would Vodafone stop using a brand that cost them $41 millon less than two years ago?

Vodafone's purchase of broadband provider ihug in October 2006 was an easy way for the telco to expand into broadband internet. Rather than spend their time and money trying to start their own broadband service, it was far easier for Vodafone to simply acquire one of the existing leaders in the broadband market - and then squish it into the Vodafone name later on. For their $41 million they got ihug's infrastructure and technology, client base, revenue stream and management. But most importantly, a good part of the purchase price will have been for the goodwill and reputation attached to the ihug name through 14 odd years of hard graft.

Now mergers and acquisitions (or in this case, acquistion and merger) are a sound and accepted strategy for business growth, but they don't necessarily make sense when it comes to enhancing a business like Vodafone's biggest asset - it's "Number One" position in the customers mind.

You see, what made Vodafone so fresh and exciting when they emerged on the NZ scene a decade or so ago, was the fact that they only did mobile phones. Consequently they led the charge in mobile phone uptake and in no time "021" was the preferred prefix for NZ's mobile phone users. Telecom's 025 and 027 were arguably just as good, and the prices were much the same, but Vodafone had the key advantage of being seen as the specialist mobile phone company - the experts, the leaders. On the face of it, Vodafone should never have had a chance against New Zealand's largest company in it's own back yard. But compared to Vodafone, Telecom was seen as a generalist - monopolistic land-line provider, directory giant, internet provider, and last but not least, a cumbersome and unsexy mobile phone co. Vodafone provided a text book example of how a newcomer can upstage the market leader simply by narrowing it's brands focus.

However, in recent times Vodafone has since become a provider of mobile internet access, an online music store, a fixed line phone services company, and then broadband internet company through their acquisition of ihug. So the question is what exactly does Vodafone specialise in now? You cannot be a specialist in everything. Indeed in the minds of the market, their offerings are now no different to those of the other mobile phone company Telecom. Who are the trendy, disenchanted or anti-establishment, mobile phone users to turn to now?

There are really two interesting things to note here. First, the further dilution and confusion of Vodafone's brand as it deviates from mobile phones (the market in which it made it's name), and second, the strategic destruction of a successful brand in an already crowded internet market.

While Vodafone's hunger for growth and expansion is understandable, there is a danger that by extending a it's brand name into categories already owned by other competitors, a name that used to stand for "mobile phones"  will ultimately stand for nothing.

"Vodafone" is fast becoming a "Vodawhat?"

Richard Liew started his first business at the age of 23 and founded the Rev Sales Network, a personal and professional development network for salespeople when he was 27. Along the way he has helped develop sales strategies for several startup’s, helped extreme sport ‘le parkour’ (freerunning) find it’s feet in NZ, and is a regular newspaper and magazine contributor on the topics of sales and marketing. He is currently working on a recruitment related internet business. Email Richard here.

This Xmas we enjoyed a fantastic holiday in Mangawhai, a bustling seaside town an hour north of Auckland, and it was while ducking into the local bottle shop for some last minute New Years eve supplies that I was reminded of the awesome power of packaging. 

As I was standing in line for the cashier, I noticed that the enterprising store owner had sellotaped mini bottles of Jagermeister to cans of Redbull, which were displayed on that prime piece of impulse-purchasing real estate - next to the cash register on the counter.

Those who know their drinks will know that a shot of Jagermeister combined with a can of Redbull combine to form a potent brew known affectionately as a "Trainwreck". "That's a good idea," I said to the checkout lady, "I'll have a couple of those too thanks." To which she replied, "Yes they've been selling like crazy - would you like some chilled ones from the fridge?" 

Now the lesson here is not that Trainwrecks are a great drink. The lesson here is that it is very easy to add value to your products and services (and therefore make them more attractive) simply by packaging them in a way which makes life easier for your customers. 

Alone, neither the Redbull nor Jagermeister, caught my eye. I had no desire for just Redbull and no desire for just Jagermeister. In fact I had walked right by a whole fridge of Redbull, and a prominent Jagermeister promotional display. But when packaged together (and let's face it, a piece of cellotape is about as simple as it gets!) the two solved a problem I (and many other customers) didn't even know I had.

As a result of this simple exercise in value creation, this bottle store was able to add an easy few hundred dollars to their tills for the day. How much could you add to your business' sales by applying this proven and simple concept?

Richard Liew started his first business at the age of 23 and founded the Rev Sales Network, a personal and professional development network for salespeople when he was 27. Along the way he has helped develop sales strategies for several startup’s, helped extreme sport ‘le parkour’ (freerunning) find it’s feet in NZ, and is a regular newspaper and magazine contributor on the topics of sales and marketing. He is currently working on a recruitment related internet business. Email Richard here.

This weeks collapse of flat-fee real estate firm The Joneses bears several lessons for entrepreneurs.

How can a high profile business be talking about listing on the stock exchange one week and then be in liquidation the next? Ironically the company that positioned itself as the one everyone else was trying to keep up with, was brought to it's knees by falling victim to its own game of "keeping up with the Joneses".

So what can we learn from this episode?

First lets look at some of the many things The Joneses did right.

1) They had a unique and valuable offering.

This is the most important element to get right. If you're going to start a business you must ensure you're offering a product or service which the market will value. Home vendors have long been complaining about the high commissions charged by real estate agencies and The Joneses flat-fee ($8995) promised great savings for vendors, when compared to the traditional percentage based commission model. The Joneses unique offering was not that they were good at selling houses (all real estate firms claim this so it doesn't differentiate you from your competitors) but that they could save their clients substantial money.

2) They created a new category.

The best strategy when launching a new business is not to compete. What do I mean by that? When you think "real estate agency" chances are that the first name that springs to mind is "Barfoots" or "Bayleys" real estate. Trying to knock these two out of these positions in the mind of the market is just going to be hard work. It's a bit trying to take on Coca-Cola and Pepsi at their own game - next to impossible (just look at what happened to Virgin Cola and a whole host of also-ran "cokes". Instead The Joneses created their own category to compete in - the flat fee real estate category. Who owns the market position "flat fee real estate" in your mind? No one. (While there are firms that offer alternatives to the traditional real estate sales model I can't think of any that offer a fixed fee for full service house sales).

3) They had a great name and well executed brand visuals.

"The Joneses" - cheeky, clever, short, memorable. The name translated well into a logo too - much more interesting than the boring and staid logo's of the dinosaurs of the industry.

4) They made great use of PR to build their brand.

Whether they planned it or not, The Joneses got themselves some great PR. Right from the start Murray Cleland and the real estate industry's unofficial "talk-up-the-market" body, the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ), came out swinging, predicting the demise of The Joneses and dismissing them as just another wanna-be, while patronisingly wishing them all the best. As the saying goes though, "even bad publicity is good publicity" with these comments to the media bringing The Joneses name to light. Chris Taylor from The Joneses then made a great move by making a controversial statement about what was wrong with the real estate industry, saying that percentage based commission was the "root of all evil" in the real estate industry. And better still, the REINZ took the bait, charging  Mr Taylor with bringing the industry into disrepute and pulling Mr Taylor and The Joneses in for a disciplinary hearing. After much media attention, the REINZ subsequently cleared The Joneses of the charges.

The following quote from Mr Taylor (again in the NZ Herald) highlights just how beneficial good PR can be for a new business:

"Mr Taylor said his company had been "overwhelmed" by the level of support it received since the issue "blew up in the media"."

5) Good advertising campaign.

The Joneses spent $3.2million dollars on advertising and promotion in their first year. What more can you say?

Unfortunately though, in business you only need to get one element in the execution of your strategy wrong, to bring the whole house down - regardless of all the things you may have done right.

So where did The Joneses go wrong?

1) Timing of the market was a little late.

In hindsight the entrepreneurs behind the Joneses may have launched a little too late. While we've just gone through one of the biggest property booms NZ has ever experienced, the market was almost at the top of the cycle by the time The Joneses joined the party (late 2006). With only a year to get the operation up and running and to get the cash coming in before the market softened, The Joneses were unable to really capitalise on the sellers market.

2) Failure to secure revenue streams or funding for growth before spending so much.

But the biggest mistake The Joneses made was spending too much too quickly. With The Joneses (unproven) business model of low flat fees for clients and paying their sales people a salary instead of on commission, they may well have had no choice but to get as many sales people on board as quickly as possible to try and get the sales they needed to cover their overheads, and to make the most of what was left of the property boom. But while the $3.2 million dollar advertising campaign may have been a good one, certainly getting them the attention of the market, the timing of such a huge expense probably wasn't. Nor was the establishment of flash offices in four cities within 12 months, or the hiring of 80 full time salaried staff before the cashflow was there to sustain such a pace.

With their unproven business model a better strategy would have been to scale down the size of their operations, maybe just getting one office up and running and ensuring it was making a profit before expanding into other centres. And rather than relying on such an expensive advertising campaign to generate business, adopting some good old fashioned sales and lead generation techniques, capitalising on all the PR and using the cash to support the team during the slower times ahead as they built up their business organically.

The real pity is that The Joneses low fees might actually have insulated them somewhat from the effects of the slow down in the property market. With a lower fee for selling, vendors may have been able to reduce their asking price to meet the buyers at their level.

Note that had The Joneses had the necessary cashflow, whether through sales or through additional debt or equity funding, the outcome may well have been different. Their attempted back-door listing on the stock exchange came too late and no doubt the directors had done everything in their power to raise the finance needed to keep going.

But that at the end of the day the responsibility lies squarely with the entrepreneur and this is a risk entrepreneurs must be willing to take. Indeed had the entrepreneurs behind The Joneses not taken that risk there wouldn't be a company to write about in the first place!

For this reason I commend the team behind The Joneses.

They came out with good intentions, looking to create real value for the market and to shake up a desperately flawed industry. They took the risk willingly and while their game wasn't quite up to scratch in this instance they did many things right. While the setback will undoubtedly have created a few economic hurdles for the founders, I hope the experience doesn't put them out of the game for good.

Richard Liew started his first business at the age of 23 and founded the Rev Sales Network, a personal and professional development network for salespeople when he was 27. Along the way he has helped develop sales strategies for several startup’s, helped extreme sport ‘le parkour’ (freerunning) find it’s feet in NZ, and is a regular newspaper and magazine contributor on the topics of sales and marketing. He is currently working on a recruitment related internet business. Email Richard here.

Hi and welcome to the LiveMyGoals.com Entrepreneurs Blog!

Becoming an entrepreneur is a goal that many people will set for themselves at some stage of their lives.

In fact many of you will have already included the goal of starting your own business in your LiveMyGoals powerpacks, and many of you will already be fighting the fight, battling every day to turn your dreams into a reality.

Others still will have will have been through the entrepreneurial cycle many times over, some successfully and some not so successfully!

But regardless of whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a perspiring entrepreneur, or an inspiring entrepreneur - this blog is for you!

This is the blog where we go in search of the answers to one simple question, "How do you create a thriving, successful, profitable business from nothing?"

And when I say nothing, I mean nothing, because that's where many of you will be today. No money, no ideas, no experience, no support. Just a desire.

In fact that's exactly where I was when I started looking for the answers to this question 10 years ago. Having just started my first full time job as an accountant, I was earning the princely sum of $24,000pa (no I'm not talking USD!) and at that rate I figured, to become a millionaire, not only would I have to double my salary, but I would not be able to spend a single cent for 20 years!

It was at that point that I committed myself to doing whatever it took to become a world class business builder, although at the time I had absolutely no idea how to make this happen.

But the great news is this. It can be done. You can do it. Regardless of what you have or haven't got right now, if you're committed to learning what it takes, if you're committed to taking action, and if you're committed to never giving up, you will be successful.

In this blog I'll do my best to share with you some of the lessons I've learnt over the years, and the lessons I am still learning as I continue my journey in the years to come. 

Some of the topics we'll discuss are:

• Attitudes and beliefs - Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?
• Ideas and opportunities - Where do you get them and how do you know if they're any good?
• Principles of wealth creation - Where does money and wealth come from?
• Skills and knowledge - What do you need to know?
• Tools and resources - How can you accelerate your learning?
• Sales and marketing - Essential entrepreneurial know-how
  
• Getting your business started - You've got an idea so now what?
• Entrepreneurial myths and misconceptions
• Lessons from current events

In addition we'll also be interviewing successful entrepreneurs, getting the inside story on how they got to where they are, and looking at the questions you, the LiveMyGoals community, want to discuss.

My hope for this blog is that by sharing some of the things that I and others have learnt, we might accelerate your learning, support you in your journey, and inspire you to do the same for others.

Once again, on behalf of the LiveMyGoals team, welcome!

Richard Liew Entrepreneur In Training! Richard Liew started his first business at the age of 23 and founded the Rev Sales Network, a personal and professional development network for salespeople when he was 27. Along the way he has helped develop sales strategies for several startup’s, helped extreme sport ‘le parkour’ (freerunning) find it’s feet in NZ, and is a regular newspaper and magazine contributor on the topics of sales and marketing. Richard is passionate about helping young entrepreneurs succeed and is currently working on a new recruitment related internet business.