Business Ideas

I found that as I developed expertise in an area, ideas came naturally and without a lot of thought. This was especially true where I also had personal experience as a customer.. The more challenging job was to separate the profitable from the unprofitable ideas.

Regrettably, I put far too much emphasis on the business analysis criteria and not enough on market analysis. I never repeated the Porter five-force analysis that I performed as part of my due diligence before Eastern Pharmaceuticals. I quite simply forgot how valuable it was. I am sure it would have prevented at least one of my errant attempts at diversification.

Paradoxically, while the best ideas seem to come from personal experience, the best validation comes from outside one's personal experience, colleagues, and friends. The broader I cast my net for information, the more successful were my plans.

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