“I Have a Great Business Idea”

“I have a great business idea! I was eating marshmallows and pretzels at the same time yesterday, and it dawned on me. Marshmallow covered pretzels – tadah! I bought the domain name MarshmallowCoveredPretzels.com, and I think there’s a great business idea. I need your help to make it happen…”

I am excited for people when they call or email me telling me they have a great business idea and the matching domain name. It’s great when people take initiative to start their own business online. There are many advantages to it, but if you’re reading my blog, I am sure you are already aware of them.

However, I am probably the wrong person to speak with about building your business idea into an actual business – especially if you aren’t planning to make it your complete focus. I am a domain investor first and foremost. I acquire domain names because I believe the value is greater than I am paying. On 90% of the domain names I acquire, my primary objective is to sell it for more than I paid, and most of the time that involves a quick sale.

A domain name can be a great start for an online business, but it’s just that – a start. You need to have a solid business plan to go along with your domain name, and that doesn’t include the financial backing that some projects need or the person behind it who is determined to make it happen. There are a lot of people with good ideas and nice domain names. It takes a lot more than that to build a business.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

16 COMMENTS

  1. IMHO, marshmallow covered pretzels is NOT a good business idea. I don’t know of a single person that would buy something like that.

    A good business idea needs to pass these three basic things:

    – Does it provide a service or product?
    – Does it impact our life of dealing with pain, greed, enjoyment, etc?
    – Is there a market for it?

    Marshmallow covered pretzels doesn’t cover any of those three things.

  2. Elliot,

    Great idea, when marshmallow covered pretzels become envogue (and they will) you will be front and center.

    I hand regged a name this a.m from an article about the dilemna of individuals in post retirement and the fact that they might want / need to go back to work

    Thus the idea to hand reg postretirementjobs.com. Maybe we can celebrate the coming out of both site someday! 🙂

  3. “It takes a lot more than that to build a business.”

    You got that right.

    Edison said invention is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

    So, great. You have a good idea. You are 1% of the way there.

  4. Elliot,

    Not so fast … don’t sell yourself or your idea short.

    Thousands of people each month pay money to watch movies that in the end they decided that they really did not like. I don’t watch or go to movies but maybe you or other readers can relate?

  5. Lol Elliot, half the commenters didn’t get the point…

    As Elliot said, “fine, your idea might be good, but don’t come to me looking for answers. Go and develop it… and especially if it’s some lame idea you think is really good…”

    Lot’s of people come up with ideas which are lame, but they convince themselves they are the best ideas since sliced bread.

    John

  6. It’s certainly an uphill battle when starting any business, but I think the greater point here is that the person didn’t take the time to do any research on the full scope of their idea.

    1. Production
    2. Marketing
    3. Distribution – Sending food products across the country is not such an easy thing to do.

    I would have given them a lot more credibility had they done at least a little research to support them.They seemed to just want you to give them the plan. That said, I really wish there was a way to instill people with all of the experience of people who have built online business’. I think a better idea would be to create a venue for people to consult/advise those looking to start a web biz.

    Anyway, at least people are thinking, which is a start.

  7. Elliot a great business Idea was the Chocolate covered pretzel, although you know with the world we live in, you can probably find someone who would want a gooey messy pretzel.

    • Some people seem to have missed the point of my post.

      People continually email (and call me) to ask me for help/advice in building their great business idea. The email usually starts with “I have a great business idea…” For some reason, people email me (a domain investor) for assistance with their projects, and I don’t exactly understand why someone would ask a domain investor for advice in building their business idea. Yeah, owning the keyword domain name is great and all, but you need to actually have a business plan, which is far more important.

      The domain name I mentioned at the beginning is still unregistered.

  8. Elliot,

    It’s your blog and I appreciate you sharing thoughts and education with newbies and fellow industry vets.

    The pretzel thing was not that far a reach however so I question the example

    Have a look at the site postretirementjobs.com I just put up in 2.5 hours. several monetization opportunities and over 100 links to our major website.

    Pretzels are not that unpopular as to be worth the 2.5 hours to build a site around the Brilliat idea as the title goes.

    Maybe reusable toilepaper.com might have been a better example of what not to bother developing LOL

    My advice if you have a passion and a couple of hours go for it! Some of the gbest ideas were po pooed by others but acted upon by the eventual successor.
    SA

  9. @ Scott

    Valid points, but with the marshmallow pretzel idea, the business owner would then have to source the product manufacturing, preservation, packaging…etc. There’s a lot more that goes into turning a good idea into a successful product/business.

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