How StartUps can convert ideas into action?

Great ideas deserve great StartUps.

There are many startups with insanely good ideas. Yet only 50% of these StartUps survive the first 5 years. And that is often not due to the unique ideas, products or services of those startups.

Finding the right strategy and turning it into action is often insufficiently thought through. What you need to do to implement a strategy quickly and successfully? That is often the difference between success and failure.

How do you realize a dream?
What are the chances
What strengths do you need to develop or possess?
What are the goals and challenges?
What are the obstacles you need to get around?
How do you gain insight into the right approach?

The most important thing is to put a good idea into action as quickly as possible. Too many good ideas are lost. Especially since the execution and operations fail to turn a good idea into a successful business. How do you quickly get from an idea to a concrete and effective action plan that you can put to work immediately? Too often things go wrong at StartUps and great ideas are lost as a result.

Much has been written about realizing a growth strategy. A good article about this is ‘The Complete 35-Step Guide For Entrepreneurs Starting A Business’ from Forbes, a great place that supports innovators and small business owners. Growth Hacking. Growth Hacking, a guerrilla marketing tactic, also gives StartUps tools to quickly turn an idea into success. It is a fast and inventive way to bind as many customers as possible with a minimal investment.

How can startups turn a good idea into action?

In addition to finding a unique concept, product or idea and linking it to an innovative growth strategy, a good action plan is indispensable to implement that strategy quickly and successfully. In most cases, this determines the success or failure of a StartUp.

Once in the implementation phase, it often turns out that realizing those ideas is difficult. It is even more difficult to subsequently interest external parties to invest in the start-up company. Many consultants, advisors and even venture capitalists are ready to hug the StartUps to death at hefty rates. Young enthusiastic and talented entrepreneurs with wonderful ideas are caught in a web of often well-intentioned outside influence. This involvement only leads to a plan of action that can be worked with after a lot of effort and a longer period of time. It often leads to unworkable business operations and/or a (too) late introduction. An early demise of a StartUp is imminent.

Converting an innovative idea into an action plan is not difficult and can be done quickly. An action plan that can be started the next day. SWOT 2.0 is the concrete and effective approach that can be used by start-ups without training. You can also use this more effective SWOT approach without consultants and advisors. It is easy to use yourself.

SWOT 2.0: the right approach to quickly turn strategy into action.

Since the 1960s, a SWOT has been used as a means of making strategic analyses. But what good is a strategic analysis without objectives and a good action plan? A SWOT is a static snapshot and nothing more.

What is SWOT 2.0? SWOT 2.0 stands for Focus, Potential, Goals, Obstacles and Action.

Focus: giving direction and demarcating.
Potential: where are the opportunities and the strength of your organization?
Goals: Formulate your goals.
Obstacles: what hinders you from turning the goals into success?
Action: what must you do together to achieve success?

SWOT 2.0 is an innovative way to help start-ups, both smaller and larger companies, move smoothly and responsibly from idea mode to action mode. Something that the original SWOT analysis cannot properly interpret.

What are the most notable benefits of SWOT 2.0?

Direction and focus on innovative ideas.
Looking for your own strength, which you have to be successful.
It gives a team a lot of new energy.
Set clear and achievable goals for the short and long term.
Identify and remove obstacles
Make a concrete action plan.
Extremely fast.
Start the performance the next day.

How can StartUps use SWOT 2.0 to take quick and targeted action?

SWOT 2.0 takes no more time than the original SWOT analysis. However, the result differs enormously: an analysis (SWOT) versus an analysis, objectives and a concrete action plan (SWOT 2.0).

Good tips to keep in mind before starting a SWOT analysis or SWOT 2.0 session can be found in the article ‘How StartUps Can Best Use a SWOT Analysis‘ from the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute. This Utah institution is a hub for students looking to turn their innovative ideas into a StartUp business.

Tips in this article are:

Be specific.
Back up with evidence, be realistic.
Think competitively.
Prioritize.
Keep your mind open.

The advantage of SWOT 2.0 is that you combine innovative ideas and power of a startup with a fast change approach. It is a brainstorming way of working that fits well with the creative phase of a StartUp. You don’t focus on weaknesses or threats without ignoring them. You learn to think from the possibilities that are available and you don’t work from limitations. Then you set goals with that result, and you arrive at a balanced action plan. You actually go from your dream (mission) to a clear and achievable concept.

The feasibility of ideas is present when identifying obstacles and making a short risk analysis. There you will be confronted with possible bottlenecks. In an action plan you convert these obstacles into concrete actions, linked to a timetable. Realizing concrete goals: that’s what it’s all about!

SWOT 2.0 can be divided into 2 phases. In phase 1 an analysis of opportunities and strengths: the steps that ensure that your idea is there. In phase 2 you can then tinker with its realization.

The logic in SWOT 2.0 is much greater than in the SWOT analysis. Via opportunities, setting achievable goals and then arriving at a realistic action plan: that is SWOT 2.0.

Don’t tinker with your ideas too much. Creatively convert your opportunities into successful action. If you encounter obstacles that you cannot immediately neutralize, you need to work on them together. It is much better to find solutions to this than to water down your ideas. Sometimes much more is possible than you initially think. That is what entrepreneurs stand for.

A quick start …

You can use SWOT 2.0 very successfully in the first steps to get from a good idea to a responsible and quick start with a realistic track suit for the first months and the phase after. By repeating phase 2, the realization, again, you can gradually make the StartUp a success after a few months. SWOT 2.0 grows with your business, you don’t need anyone for it, it’s free to use and has no learning curve for the participants.

Growth Hacking is “The goal of growth hacking strategies is generally to acquire as many users or customers as possible with as little money as possible.” (Wikipedia).

The Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute is an innovation and entrepreneurship community for students at the University of Utah and an interdisciplinary division of the David Eccles School of Business. Here you will find a lot of useful information.