How to Get Big Results from Small Ideas

This is a guest post by Ian Nuttall, of Leash Optional,

Everybody wants to have that one “big” idea. The idea that will generate them a six figure income, change the world and allow them to live the life of their dreams.

Who doesn’t love a big idea? Big ideas are sexy, alluring and dangerous. Everyone is looking to find the next Google or the next Facebook.

But whatever happened to the small idea?

It’s not the size that counts, it’s what you get out of it

Sure, a big idea sounds hot on paper. Billions of dollars in revenue, flying all over the world to conferences and being the pioneer in your industry. But let’s look at why small ideas can be more beneficial than big ones:

• A small idea is harder to copy. Whereas a big idea is heavily advertised, publicized and talked about – you can slip underneath the radar of your competition with a small idea. This makes it much less likely that your idea will be copied. And even if it is, if you were first to market then you already have the competitive advantage and the authority needed to dominate.
• Small ideas are more agile. If you are trying to build something huge, it will take much longer to react. There may be different laws or procedures you need to follow or employees you have to wait for to perform certain tasks before you can change even something as simple as a price.
• Small ideas are less risky. You can take a punt on a small idea and not have it come back to bite you. What if you invested heavily into a huge idea and it went south? Do you fancy losing your mortgage over a failed business venture? I don’t.
• Small ideas are more fun. There isn’t as much stress involved in a small idea. You can have fun with it, be yourself, meet like minded people and enjoy the journey much more than the immense pressure that comes with trying to make a success of a big idea.

I love small ideas. They come to me much more easily and I can act on them right away without investing too much time and effort into them. If they work, I can invest more time and effort into them. If they don’t pan out, well I have plenty more ideas just as small that I can test out.

Below, I’ve come up with five simple ways you can take your small ideas and transform them into big results.

5 Ways to Transform Small Ideas into Big Results

1. Don’t second guess yourself. No idea is too small to generate big results from. The sooner you understand that you can sell ice to an Eskimo Innuit if it’s the right kind of ice, the sooner you’ll realize that there is no idea too small. You can be successful from the tiniest of brainstorms.People make a fortune every day online by selling information products based on specific dog breeds for goodness sake so don’t worry about your idea being too small. It’s not. I’m pretty sure I could find a blog and/or products out there on keeping an ant farm, and that’s got to be one of the smallest ideas going – literally!
2. Be persistent. The beauty of small ideas is that the audience you’re targeting will be highly specific. Because you share a niche passion with them, you’ll connect with them much more deeply and gan influence and authority quite quickly. The downside is that because the audience is smaller, it will take longer to find them.The trick to getting big results from small ideas is sticking with your idea when you don’t get the big result right away. Stick with it and continue to follow through on your idea day in and day out. Eventually, the right people will find you and your idea will grow into something remarkable. Just have a little patience.
3. Get creative. The best way to stand out is to do something nobody else is doing. Make yourself the big fish in the little pond and blow them out of the water. Think of something unique and innovative to offer that nobody else does and you’ll quickly become the go-to guy/girl for your audience.I notice that the Jack Russell guide offers free e-mail consulting with every purchase. Why not go one better and offer an hour of phone or Skype consultation? You never know, the client may like the phone consultation so much because of the personal touch that they book further coaching sessions with you.
4. Maximize every opportunity. Because your idea is small and your audience is laser focused, it is imperative that you make the most of every opportunity available if you want big success. Get comfortable asking for what you want. If it’s subscribers, ask for them. If it’s sales, ask for them too. If you want new clients, go out and approach new leads.I’m not telling you to give them the hard sell, coerce them or trick them into getting what you want. What I am saying is that if you want something, you will never get it unless you ask. Go check out that Jack Russell site again. Not only do they ask you to buy the ebook, they also ask for your email address in exchange for a free e-course. With that, they can build a connection over time and if you don’t buy the book now – they’ll ask you again later when you might be more sold on the idea.
5. Replicate your success. Once you start to achieve results from your small idea, you can extract more from it by repeating the steps you took to get to that point. If you were making four sales a month with an affiliate product from around 15 unique visitors per day, you would replicate whatever strategy it was that you used to get those 15 visitors and use it to ramp up visitors to 150 uniques per day.You may not get the same rate of sales growth as you do traffic, but you will most certainly be getting more sales than you were before. Once you have a formula for success, don’t deviate from it and don’t get distracted by other strategies. You know what works, so replicate that and forget the rest.

My advice to you is to stop worrying about blowing the competition out of the water with a “big” idea. Trust me when I say that you can blow people away, earn a great deal of money, and live a fantastic life; all through the power of small ideas.

What is your next small idea going to be?

Ian Nuttall is a small ideas evangelist and creator of Leash Optional, a blog about creating big results in love, life and business. Subscribe now and follow him on Twitter.