"I tend to have more ideas than time". Sounds familiar?

We business owners and entrepreneurs tend to see opportunities everywhere we look. There are so many options for solutions we can create, for ways we can market our products or services, even for how we structure our days.

So, what can you do when you have too many business ideas and too little time?

Well, as a business owner with too many ideas you can prioritize them by evaluating strategic fit, implementation time, required resources, and expected impact. But before we dive into the framework I use for my business and with my clients, let’s start with a critical distinction.

Shiny Objects vs. Worthwhile Ideas

I know this from personal experience. I’ve fallen victim of this trap and many of my clients and friends do the same. We have a lot of Level 5 energy (that win-win perspective) that allows us to see opportunities instead of challenges.

Someone says they need a website? Awesome, I can do this.

A client complains about another vendor who didn’t deliver the app they wanted? Maybe my company can take it over.

The youth unemployment crisis in Canada is getting worse? How about we start hiring recent grads.

We do this all the time. We read something or hear something and our minds come up with ideas and solutions.

That’s awesome. To an extend. Because as a visionary business owner you need to be able to imagine a better future. You need to be able to see opportunities and come up with solutions.

However, many of the ideas we come up with tend to be shiny objects. Distractions that we need to park immediately and forget about them.

Shiny objects are very compelling and on the surface look like great ideas. The problem is that they take us off course and don’t provide any meaningful value for our businesses.

Worthwhile ideas, on the other hand, are those opportunities that accelerate our results. They help us move faster or at least keep us on the right path with more clarity.

Is it a worthwhile idea?

So, before we even talk about ways to choose what to do, we need to prune the list of ideas.

All these options, all these ideas, all these projects – right them down and decide whether it’s a shiny object or a worthwhile idea.

How do you do this?

I personally consider where my business is and what I’m currently doing first and then evaluate the idea based on my current situation. Some questions I ask myself are:

• Am I already doing something in that area?

• If yes, has my process been proven to work or not work (i.e. am I still testing my current system)?

• Does the new idea improve on my existing process or is it something completely new?

• Does the new idea require new skills or resources I don’t currently have?

In general, if the new idea is taking me off course (i.e. it’s something completely new), I’ll probably consider it a shiny object. If it’s something that adds value to my existing process, then I might consider evaluating it further.

FOMO

I know. We have all experienced FOMO at some point in our lives and businesses.

But, Anna, everyone is now using AI agents. I should be using them too!

Should you? Who says so?

One of the worst things you can do is decide a shiny object is a worthwhile idea just because everyone else says so. More often than not the masses are wrong. If they zig, you want to zag.

99% if your ideas should end up in the shiny object or if you prefer “not now” pile.

Steve Jobs said it himself:

“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I'm actually as proud of the things we haven't done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”

As a founder in the age of uncertainty we are living through, one of the best skills you can develop is the skill of focus and saying “no” to ideas and opportunities.

The Power of Focus

To build a visionary business, a business that’s profitable, loved by customers, great place to work at, makes an impact, and where you, the business owner, are happy and fulfilled, you need to do the following:

1. Set the vision

2. Create the roadmap

3. Follow it

4. Learn

5. Adjust

Yes, I know. This is exactly the capabilities I help my clients develop. Thanks for noticing 😊

The thing is. Each of these capabilities, requires focus and consistency.

Focus on a clear vision. Don’t change the goal posts and target consistently.

Focus on a simple, yet effective path. Don’t stretch yourself too thin trying to do too many things.

Focus on doing the work. Consistently. Don’t get distracted by other possibilities and what your fellow founders are doing. Their vision and roadmap is different than yours.

Focus on measuring what matters (a.k.a. KPIs). Don’t keep track of every single variable or metric.

Focus on optimizing what works, removing what doesn’t, and adding the next experiment. Don’t try to boil the ocean.

What happens when you focus

I remember someone brought a magnifying glass to class (yes, it was one of the boys in my elementary school). And during one of the breaks, we started a small fire on the windowsill by harvesting the power of the focused sunrays.

We would have never started a fire had we moved our focus from one spot to another. Or if we tried to disperse the rays.

The same thing applies to running our businesses.

As tempting as it might be to introduce new products and services all the time and to expand our marketing channels constantly, dedicated and focused effort is what makes a difference.

This works on many levels, starting from the purely energetic part where our focused energy starts attracting whatever we need to achieve our goal. (yes, I’ve watched “The Secret” movie a few times, read the books, and read a few other fascinating books on the topic of energy and manifestation. Oh, and I’m a certified Energy Leadership Coach, so…)

Also, when you focus on one channel and one product when you are starting, you can make this work. You have the time and energy to do the work and improve.

Getting traction is not easy. Why do we think that by spreading ourselves too thin we will increase our chances of success?

Anyway, I’m getting off track.

Staying focused allows you to go through the capabilities quickly. From vision to roadmap to execution to measurement to improvement. And this can quickly turn into a virtuous cycle where your improvements start bringing better and better results.

So, yes, focus is key. Ask any successful entrepreneur.

How do you choose which idea(s) to implement?

First and foremost, I want to make sure that we are clear. No shiny objects. 99% of your ideas should end up being discarded because they are literally unnecessary distractions.

You should only evaluate the worthwhile ideas.

The good news is that the framework I’m using for my business and with my clients will remove the shiny objects as well. It’s also a relatively objective process with numbers, so you will easily see the winner(s).

Idea Evaluation Process

1. Write down all ideas

2. Evaluate each idea for the following:

   a. Strategic fit: how aligned it is to your current BHAG

   b. Time to implementation: how quickly you can execute the idea

   c. Resources required: how much money and people are needed to execute the idea

   d. Projected impact: how much revenue increase or cost saving will the idea generate

3. Use a 1-10 scale where:

   a. 1 is not aligned at all to our current BHAG and 10 is 100% aligned

   b. 1 is months of execution needed and 10 is quick implementation (maybe in a day or two or even hours)

   c. 1 is thousands of dollars and hundreds or thousands of manhours and 10 is under $100 or something very inexpensive

   d. 1 is almost no change and 10 is 2X, 3X, etc. growth or cutting costs in half or more

4. This is where you can prune some of the shiny objects that might have slipped through the cracks. If you have an idea that scores under 5 on the strategic fit, get rid of it. I even go further where I eliminate ideas that score 7 or below. I want my focus to be on ideas that are at least 80% aligned with my BHAG.

   Note: You can prune other ideas as well. If you realize that the projected impact is 1 or 2, maybe this is not something you want to focus on. Even if it’s easy to do. There’s nothing worse than doing what should not be done.

5. For the remaining ideas, sum the four numbers to get the total

6. Focus on the idea with the highest total score

There you have it. The process I use to evaluate ideas. And the skill you want to develop as a business owner in an age of uncertainty and constant change – focus.

Until next week when I’ll share how to start a business with a clear plan.

Remember to cherish the simple moments.