You're juggling multiple new business ideas. How do you decide where to allocate your resources?

Allocating our resources is very crucial when I'm juggling between different ideas and this might overcome by following approach like - by assess the market potential, validation and demand for each idea and then evaluate the resources (financial, human, technical) needed for each idea - Allocate resources based on the prioritization of ideas, considering factors like market potential, resource requirements, and risk - Ensure a balance of high-risk, high-reward and low-risk, steady-return projects

You need to do / find out / make sure the following: Market Research - Feasibility Analysis -Alignment with Goals- Potential ROI - Pilot Testing - Risk Assessment - Feedback Loops - Resource Availability -Timeline for Implementation - Scalability But the most important asset: It is you! You must be willing to give everything to make it happen. Don′t listen to the people (they can be many) who think that you are wasting your time and money. Don′t expect anything being easy, just push it with everything you have!

Another critical aspect to be included in analysis is to evaluate scalability of idea. Evaluate if the idea has the potential to scale up and grow, both in terms of market reach and operational capacity and also what will be Resource Requirements whether the necessary resources (financial, human, technological) are available or can be acquired.

Evaluating potential business ideas requires a critical and keen eye. A SWOT analysis, in order to map the internal and external environment, is very important, and mainly provides support for decision-making and strategic actions. However, we must have a slightly more detailed interest, in order to allow an assertive analysis: * know and know who the possible competitors are (direct, indirect and substitute products, when applicable); * basic knowledge of the main process (for example, a process flowchart); * discuss the type of strategy you intend to adopt; * identify which problem or need this business idea meets or solves; * identify the benefits generated by this business proposal/idea (financial, social, environmental, etc.).

I appreciate the Pragmatic Marketing approach for assessing business ideas. Evaluate how your idea aligns with: - Strategy - Competitive Landscape - Investment Needs - Impact on the Customer While you can add additional factors, the key is to determine if the idea aligns with your business goals and has potential.

Evaluate Customer Needs and Preferences. Pain Points- Identify the key problems or needs that your business idea cater. Preferences - Understand customer preferences regarding features, pricing, and channels. Market Size- Estimate the total market size and potential demand for your product or service. Growth Trends- Identify historical growth trends and future projections to gauge the market’s potential.

I understand that there are three fundamental factors for good market research: You must know the customer, their behavior, what they are sensitive to, their segmentation, and what they expect; You must know the competitors, who they are, where they are, how they operate, where they operate, their strengths and weaknesses; You must know your own product or service and test consumer behavior towards it: its attributes, why it is desired, why it is rejected, its strengths, weaknesses, and its target audience. Taking these three factors into account and balancing what you want to deliver with what the customer/market desires, it is very likely that this product or service will be desirable and consequently have market potential to be explored.

Understanding the market and identifying key problems are fundamental to business innovation. Conducting thorough market research is crucial to avoid missteps in product positioning, prevent wasted efforts on irrelevant features, and ensure alignment with customer needs. By analyzing the market landscape and existing value propositions, businesses can effectively direct their development efforts and optimize their product strategies.

You will constantly be looking for opportunities, which can come online or on-site. So, read to find trends, meet people as some opportunities may have been discovered by others.

Market research should always start with talking to your targeted audience. Have them tell you if the problem your product/service solves is important enough for people to pay for it. Let them tell you what's the price they'd be willing to buy it for and what's the decisive factor for them when picking between your product/service and a competitor. Focus groups, interviews, community polls, social media listening, observation of consumer behavior and competitor analysis are your best friends to learn about what your potential customers really need and would purchase.

Talent and tech infrastructure are beyond capital the most important resources to run a (new) business in the digital world: - Talent that masters today already the technology shifts that will happen in the future to anticipate tech employment early - Modern tech infrastructure allows for rapid exploration and employment of new technologies at affordable efforts and cost If a company has accumulated too much tech debt in the past (i.e. postponed or skipped necessary investments into the tech stack), those can't be leapfrogged by jumping to an entire new tech stack due to the dependence to legacy systems and data.

In addition to resource audits, I find capability analysis crucial for identifying what a business excels at and can leverage as a competitive advantage. For example, Amazon realized that their data was key to innovating how they recommend books and products. This "tiny" innovation has significantly boosted their revenue. Capability analysis helps uncover what can be built next to drive business growth.

Two crucial points for starting and maintaining a business, besides the initial investment, is human and working capital, considering that time is also a resource, and both mentioned above depreciate over time. Companies do not exist without people, and depending on the complexity or specialty of the activities to be developed, they are the greatest asset of an organization. Working capital is what allows the company to “keep its head above water.” Labor, energy, licenses, startup. Not to mention maintaining enough cash to cover operational cash flow, considering payment terms, receipts, and inventory renewal. Yes, it must be sufficient for this; otherwise, there is a risk of not having available cash resources to maintain operations.

Do not gamble more than 10-20% of your resources, unless you’ve done enough homework. Or gradually increase the size of your gamble as you get in deeper, but always have an exit plan.

When juggling multiple new business ideas, a robust risk analysis is crucial for effective resource allocation. Create a risk assessment matrix to evaluate each business idea based on the defined risk parameters. While assigning a risk score like low, medium, high, make each parameter for each idea and then prioritize ideas based on the overall risk profile. This will establish a clear KPIs for each business idea to measure progress and identify potential issues early on.

Make sure that you understand the risks and that you can recover in a short time if your endeavor fails. Risks are there because there are too many things that you are not aware of because you don’t find the relevant experience. So do your research and ask some people who have the relevant experience before you get into the venture.

Creating a solid business case is crucial for evaluating the economic viability of an innovation. Even for innovative products with many unknowns, thorough analysis is essential. I recommend developing several scenarios—pessimistic, optimistic, and realistic—to gain a comprehensive understanding of how the innovation and market might evolve. This approach helps assess whether the business idea has the potential to succeed.

Few points to be considered are - 1. Break-Even Point: Calculate the break-even point to determine how much revenue is needed to cover all costs and start generating profit. 2. Feasibility: Ensuing that reaching break-even point is feasible within timeline. 3. Capital Needs: Ensuing projected funding requirements are realistic and have a plan to secure the necessary capital. 4. Financial Buffer: Check if there is a financial buffer for unforeseen expenses or delays. 5. Consider Long-Term Sustainability: Growth Projections: Evaluate if the financial forecast supports long-term growth and sustainability.

When intending to analyze the feasibility of a business idea, predicting financial needs is fundamental. For this, it is very important to prepare a projected cash flow for a certain period, taking into account expenses, costs, revenues, taxes, investments, working capital, and others. This cash flow should consider, among other aspects, interest rates and inflation, as money depreciates over time in most cases. Another relevant factor is that it is highly recommended to make two cash flow projections, one realistic and one pessimistic, considering a more adverse risk scenario. This way, you have an indication of the business’s behavior in a situation slightly different from the idealized one, serving as a kind of stress test.

In my experience, I perform an Impact and SWOT analysis to identify the key input to take any future actions. Along with this access the current bandwidth utilization and ROI to see the option of redistribution of resources.

When deciding where to allocate resources among multiple business ideas, I balance passion and gut feeling with a strategic assessment of market potential, resource requirements, and potential impact. I prioritize ideas that align with my strengths, have scalable market opportunities, and fit within my long-term vision. I also validate ideas through testing and feedback before committing fully, ensuring that both my intuition and data guide the decision.

The team. Are they adults with emotional intelligence (granted that all the ideas I’m looking at have very talented teams) or people Im going to have to talk to through other people. I can be direct. I don’t do well with researchers ( for me too stiff in their thinking and keep missing opportunities), and creative people who should stay create and leave business to business people. But some of them I like and respect so much I will find a way to work with them even if I need an FBI trained negotiator between us.

In my view, one of the most useful tools is the decision matrix. This 4 quadrant diagram depicts the ideas with most relevance for your business. It helps you to prioritize proposals in short , medium and long term. I usually label the axis with impact and feasibility factors, but you could choose any factor that is relevant for your strategy. In my case, I choose the ideas with highest impact and highest feasibility to start in the short term.