(Photo by Spirit-Fire )

You just had a brainstorm of an idea. It’s obviously a winner, and yet no one has seen what you’ve seen. So before you bet everything on this “sure-thing”, here’s what you might want to do.

1) Identify who will pay you NOW for what you’re planning. Not who might be interested. Not who might give you some money. Who will eagerly pay you cash for your new idea? You might say, “But if I tell people what my brilliant idea is, someone is likely to steal it from me!” While it’s possible, it’s quite unlikely. Ideas are the easy part. Putting the ideas into action is the hard part. Warning #1: You are having trouble identifying prospective customers.

2) Identify what your prospective customers buying today. If you’re thinking that your new business’s success is based on stealing customers from the established leader – be careful. The “old guys” may be myopic, but they are likely fierce competitors with more resources that you have. Warning #2: You are betting against the house – and the house wins over the long run.

3) What can you do that others simply can’t? If you’re planning to attack a market leader (see step #2), identify what you can do that clearly doesn’t fit with their business model. If they sell to Fortune 100, then target smaller businesses. If they only handle big projects, then specialize with small projects. Can you add personal value-added services? Warning #3: You are planning to do something similar to your competition, but with a slight twist.

4) How can you build a network that trusts you? If you don’t have a strong network already, build it first. You’ll need to leverage them when you have something ready to market. Then, start to ask questions, listen to their answers, and learn from the dialogue. Building a trusted network takes time. Warning #4: Your marketing strategy is “If I build it, people will find me and want to buy from me.”

5) Test your big idea in smaller pieces. If what you’re planning hasn’t been done before, odds are it’ll take a considerable amount of your resources. So, instead of building the “final product” first, build a small version of it. Call it an “alpha test”. Can you get people interested enough in trying it? Can you get people interested enough to pay for it in its current state? Many successful companies started with a “big idea” and during their testing of the “small pieces” discovered that the “big idea” wasn’t that marketable, but their “small piece” was applicable to a different problem. Warning #5: You can’t break down your big idea into small chunks.

If you’re starting a new business or initiative and see that no one else has staked their claim – you could be a genius or an idiot. Don’t be the last one to figure out which you are.