That 'EUREKA !' business idea - translating it into reality

My wife had one of those 'eureka' moments yesterday and came running into my office to explain it to me. It was indeed a great idea - it was whilst not unique, not overflowing with competitors, relatively cheap to implement (i.e. not requiring vast amounts of stock and investment but will need decent premises) and that we think will appeal to a demographic we think we can aim it towards.

Now I need to translate the idea into reality. Now this is a work in progress of course but here is my initial mindset/process thoughts.

Let's look at the market
Who can we sell to ?
Is is potentially profitable ?
What are the barriers or problems ?
Where should the business be located ?
What is the next stage ?

I spent a long time on the internet yesterday looking at competitors - how their business model operates and their locations. This gave me some initial insight into my new market, confirmed that there seems to be some money in it but also that it isn't overexploited, certainly in the geographic areas I'm looking at. Plus, I think we can put some additional spins and ideas into it that will make it more unique.
This research also answered my questions on location and I now have a premises search area.

There are lots of barriers : time, cost, competition but as per the above - nothing that looks on the face of it insurmountable.

When I'm speaking to coaching clients I talk about barriers to action, planning ,preparation and implementation/review. so the last stage of my tyre kicking the idea last night was to spend 20 minutes putting together an outline business plan - With any goal you want to pursue (personal or business) I always recommend this exercise but obviously it has particular relevance for starting a new business. Now don't get me wrong. This wasn't a clearly thought through document you could show to a bank to obtain finance. Rather it is a quick and dirty mental exercise where I jotted down on paper all the costs I could think of (lease on a property; business rates; cost of stock; cost of store refit; overheads; contingency fund etc) - it's vital for this first exercise that the assumptions here be quite conservative on the costs (i.e. pad them up a little). I then made some quick projections on sales then took off 25% - so the sales were perhaps too low to counter my higher cost estimates.

Because the result showed me a decent profit (25% return on investment capital year one) with these kind of assumptions I'm pretty confident the idea has some legs.

So we have have initial barriers and planning/prep done - now for the most important element - IMPLEMENTATION !

My first job this morning was to write a brief to local property agents to see what is out there and at what cost that suits my idea. So I've now sent the brief off to ten agents and await responses.

This part of the process also enables me to highlight the last area of my process : Review.

If the property that comes back is too expensive or not in the right locations then I will need to adapt (the business plan), plan, prepare and implement again.

Some simple steps that hopefully work in context of any decision and goal attainment process. As this business idea progresses (or not) I will keep you all updated