Check out my company’s Boston Tutoring Service on our Thumbtack profile.

Why would I link to this profile rather then directly to my website?

I’ll tell you why…

Thumbtack offers a really awesome way to list local services. The site is easy to use, has a lot of great pictures, and I hope that it will eventually generate me some leads!

The thing I love the most about Thumbtack is the game mechanics they use to encourage businesses to increase interactions on the site. Just by writing this little blurb, my account will be credited 30 points which will bump me up to being a gold member!

Why do I want to be a gold member?

Because gold is better than silver of course!

They also provide some other benefits for being a gold member but I’m not really sure what they are.

I bring this up because it’s a good lesson in how to get people to do things. I don’t have any logical reason to want to be a Gold Member. I just want it and I’m willing to write this to get there!

Other things I (and many others) might be willing to do for precious points include filling out more optional parts of my profile, referring other businesses, spreading the word over social media, and a lot more.

If it works for them, how might using points encourage your customers to take the actions you want them to?

Here are the 13 questions I talked about in the recording I posted a few days ago. They are all explained in that MP3 file so make sure you listen to it!

1. What type of business is right for you?

2. Is it filling a NEED in the market?*

3. Is there a high barrier to ENTRY?*

4. Do you have full CONTROL over the business?*

5. Can the business rapidly SCALE to the masses?*

6. What amount of personal TIME will be required to run the business once established?*

7. Is the concept testable prior to full product creation/launch? How?

8. What are the costs associated with launching this idea?

9. How much competition is there (direct and substitute) for this idea? Are they strong/weak competitors?

10. Is this idea differentiated from the competition? How?

11. How wealthy is the market?

12. What type of margin can you expect on the sale of the product or service?

13. How much potential is there for upselling/cross-selling with this idea?

*These questions were taken from MJ DeMarco’s fantastic book The Millionaire Fastlane. It’s a terrible, cheesy, utterly awful book title, but it’s an AMAZING book for anyone who wants top quality business advice from a guy who has made a lot of money in business.

Do you have a great business idea that you’re not quite sure is ready for primetime?

Evaluating ideas is incredibly important for aspiring entrepreneurs. Who wants to spend all sorts of time and money working on a project that can’t work?

I know I don’t!

I recently spoke to a group of aspiring entrepreneurs in Oslo, Norway who were full of ideas but not quite so full of confidence that they could work.

The whole talk was recorded and now you get to listen to it for free!

During the speech, I go through my list of questions for evaluating business ideas. Some are my own and some I’ve taken from other sources. All of them are important to consider.

Have a listen to the talk and leave a comment telling me what you think.

Enjoy!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

After reading countless books about positive psychology recently, I can honestly say it’s an area of study that literally (and I mean literally in a literal sense!) every single person regardless of age or profession should know about and apply.

One of my favorite applications of positive psychology is the ability to appreciate and be grateful for everything positive in your life. This little habit has a documented ability to make you happier from nearly the first time you use it!

It doesn’t matter if you’re appreciating your best friend, your skill for logical thinking, or even a pretty flower that makes you happy. All that matters is that you look for things to appreciate or be grateful for.

While most of what I’ve read has focused on just coming up with a list of several things you appreciate upon waking up or before going to sleep, I’ve been a little more freeform with this technique.

Whenever I find myself in need of a pick-me-up or angry at somebody, I start to focus on what I appreciate about that person, myself, or the situation, and almost immediately I feel better. It’s like replicable magic!

But starting today I’m taking it a step further (and throwing in some fun new ideas). Every morning I’ll be completing the following five prompts:

1. I am grateful for … because …

Example: “I am grateful for my friend Bob because he always is there to listen when I need a friend”

2. I am appreciative of … because …

Example: “I am appreciative of my courage to become an entrepreneur because it allows me to live life on my own terms.”

3. I love … because …

Example: “I love my life because I’m able to do new and exciting activities each day.”

4. Today is going to be a great day because …

Example: “Today is going to be a great day because I woke up refreshed and have an exciting meeting later.”

5. The most important thing I can do today is …

Example: “The most important thing I can do today is find one thing I appreciate about every person I come in contact with.”

That’s it!

Just five quick fill in the black questions that will demonstrably improve my mood and get my day started on an awesome foot (and maybe yours too).

To make it even more dead simple, I’ve used Google Documents to create a webform where I can answer these questions and track them over time. I’ve set this as my homepage so it’s the first thing I see and do when I fire up the computer.

Feel free to get the Morning Mindset Form for yourself.

Dale Knauss (that’s me) is none too happy that this blog isn’t the number one ranked site for the search term “Dale Knauss.”

While the first result IS about me, it’s from LinkedIn, otherwise known as Facebook’s far less fun and engaging friend.

To rectify this issue, Dale Knauss (me again!) is attempting to stuff this page with his chosen keyword in order to benefit from better SEO.

If I were feeling really ambitious, I’d also build a few links on other sites like this one: Dale Knauss

Why am I doing all this? Because I enjoy Googling myself regularly and want to maintain full domain over the first impression I make when someone keys in my name. After all, who can make a better representation of me? I think I can (though this post suggests otherwise)!

I’ve also noticed that other people named Dale Knauss have started to pop up on the first page of Google. THIS MUST BE STOPPED.

Isn’t SEO fun?

What you believe is wrong… The good news is, you’re not alone.

I’m wrong, he’s wrong, she’s wrong, the whole world is wrong.

And the great triumphs go to those that make us less wrong.

Every major innovation stems from ignoring what can and can’t be done.

Every successful company asks “why don’t we do it this way instead of the way everyone else is doing it?”

If everything about your business is wrong, if everything about your life is wrong, how can you make it right?

Challenge every idea you hold, dispute every belief. Just because it’s always been that way, doesn’t mean that’s the way it always has to be.

Systematically question everything you hold sacred. Discard the house of cards, the lie built upon lie in the system.

Ignite revolution within yourself, overthrow your internal dictator.

It’s time to start being right! It’s time to change the world!

Challenge every assumption.

What if you could put idea generation on easy mode?

Is it really possible to come up with million (or even billion) dollar ideas without relying on that rare and elusive eureka moment?

Answer: Yes!

I’ve created a process to systematize the brainstorming of awesome ideas that, when used correctly, can allow you to quickly and efficiently develop a list of insanely lucrative ideas.

It’s time to take the luck and random nature of idea creation out of the equation and turn your mind into an Automatic Business Idea Machine.

To understand this process, lets first look at an article recently published in the New York Times titled “In Groupon’s $6 Billion Wake, a Fleet of Start-Ups.”

In the article, you learn about a glut of startups, over 500 worldwide, that have attempted to create services similar to those of the group buying site, Groupon.

With a valuation for Groupon exceeding $6 Billion dollars, it’s no wonder that a load of people want a taste of the action. Who wouldn’t?

While some of these companies are attempting to compete with Groupon directly, many are taking a more practical route. They’re changing things up!

One way many entrepreneurs are seeking to do this is by going after a specific niche. Rather then swim in the huge market Groupon is dominating, the companies are attempting to take over smaller niche markets. This type of strategy can be broken down into three types of niche.

• Group Specific Niche: Aimed at Jewish people (I’m crossing my fingers for half off Manischewitz!), African-Americans, small businesses, gay people, and any other demographic you can think of.

• Product Category Specific Niche: Aimed at people who buys pet products, alternative health products, outdoor products, and other specific product categories.

• Location Specific Niche: Aimed at small communities and towns. (Groupon tends to target larger cities and areas).

These niche sites, by catering to very specific sorts of people, are able to offer far more relevant deals then those offered by Groupon. While there’s never going to be as big a market for a niche site, the possibility to completely dominate a smaller market can be very profitable.

So what if niches aren’t your thing?

Well it turns out that entrepreneurs have uncovered some other great ways to hop on this opportunity.

One of my favorite business sayings goes something like “the people who got the richest during the gold rush were the ones selling shovels.” It turns out, I’m not the only one who likes the saying.

Here’s a few examples of that concept:

• A programming company selling website templates to anyone wanting to create their own deal site.

• An annual conference has been created that aims to bring all deal site owners together.

• A company (now several) that aggregates many different deal sites in one location, allowing customers to see many deals at once.

It turns out there’s big money in selling shovels during this gold rush!

Now I know what you’re thinking… I promised you a system to start creating your own great ideas and all I’ve given you is a bunch of Groupon lackeys. Well lets switch gears for a second… all of these entrepreneurs may just be onto something that isn’t just about Groupon.

It turns out that for every successful business, there are tons of variations on that business’ central idea that can yield amazing profits.

If you can figure out how to apply that central idea to new markets, or how to tweak that idea so you can serve their market better, you could have a smash hit.

Enter the Automatic Business Idea Machine.

The Automatic Business Idea machine takes successful business ideas and puts them through a series of well defined thought provoking questions. Each question is designed to get your creative juices flowing and force you to develop powerful business ideas.

After inserting several ideas through the Automatic Business Idea Machine, you’ll not only have trained your brain to think in ways that make coming up with new ideas a breeze, you’ll also have a huge list of potential projects to get started with immediately.

Want to know what the questions in the Automatic Business Idea Machine are?

You’ll have to read the next post to find out!

“Your great idea ain’t worth shit… millions of people have had great ideas and never made a dime off of them. It’s the guys who excute good ideas that make millions.”

Ask just about any successful startup entrepreneur about the power of ideas and this is pretty much what they’ll tell you.

They suggest, rather counter-intuitively, that it’s not the idea but what you do with the idea that counts.

And the fact is, they’re right.

If you don’t take action, if you don’t create a strong team, and if you don’t put an idea out in the market in the ways customers demand, you’re better off selling oranges on the side of the road.

But here’s their dirty little secret:

Your Great Ideas Can Make You Great Money

The best execution in the world can’t save an idea that the market doesn’t want.

And a great idea has the power to shape amazing execution in ways that an average or even good idea simply can’t approach.

Greatness creates excitement, it creates oppurtunity where before there was none, and most importantly, it has the largest potential to change the world!

Sure you’re still going to have to work your ass off to make this idea a reality… but if you’re creating a business either way, might as well make it an awesome one.

“But Dale” you say, “how can I create a great idea… and how do I know if it’s really as great as my mommy says it is?”

Well that’s a question I’ve been asking myself a lot recently, and that’s what I’ll be aiming to address with this series of posts.

You see, I believe in a systematic approach to generating, evaluating, researching, and then finally implementing great ideas.

Following a system allows your mind to free itself to create freely… it forces you to focus on the things that must be focused on.

The Business Idea Generator Process

By following the process outlined below you’ll be utilizing powerful mental processes to come up with an amazing list of fantastic ideas. Ideas that empower you to do great things (and make a lot of money in the process).

You’ll then figure out which of these business ideas are likely to be most profitable, have the greatest likelihood of success, and create the greatest level of excitement in you (this is essential if you want to keep up momentum and implement your ideas).

Once you’ve narrowed down your list of ideas to your top few favorites, it’s time to test. Too many people spend tons of cash to launch ideas only to later discover that nobody wants them! Sure their family and friends told them it was a great idea… but they never actually did the right research to check for themselves.

If you’re having trouble chooseing which idea is right for you… here’s your chance to figure it out scientifically.

Finally with the winning idea choosen, it’s time to implement. This is the make or break moment where taking action could change your life forever. But only you have that power….

So here’s the whole process broken down:

Step 1: Create a comprehensive list of good ideas (the more ideas, the better).

Step 2: Run each idea through your established evaluation process.

Step 3: Do more comprehensive market research and testing on the most powerful ideas.

Step 4: Create and implement the ONE idea with the highest likelihood of success.

That’s it, if you’ve done this right you’ll now have a million (billion?) dollar idea…  an idea that you can be confident has demand and major oppurtunity.

It won’t make launching a cinch, but it will certainly make things much easier.

In my next post I’ll take you through a series of simple questions, resources, and other strategies that you can use to create your great idea.

Stay tuned!