Why does your new business idea have to be 'scalable'?

I am tried, tired of hearing the same old rubbish being spouted by those who say that what their role is to coach, mentor and support existing or emerging businesses.

Why do they always play with the same old tropes?

For instance why, when you have a new business idea do you need to seek a problem to fix and then make your solution ‘scalable’ why can it not just be enough to have found a solution to a problem?

Why is there an assumption that every entrepreneur is still there wishing that they could be the new Google, Amazon, or Apple?

It misses the true nature of entrepreneurism. It is a fiction to pretend that Microsoft or Facebook were created to be the next big thing.

Entrepreneurs have an idea, put it out there and experiment. Sitting waiting for an idea to be ‘scalable’ misses the point.

Entrepreneurship is about creativity and taking a risk that you might be wrong. Taking something small and playing with it, rolling it around and finding out how it feels.

If anyone gives you a spreadsheet with a tick box of how to create your business idea and make it work, they are being disingenuous and either they are not to be trusted or they don’t understand themselves.

There is no right way to do things. All you can do is have an idea and put it out there and take a chance.

To have a better shot at success it is of course wise to seek advice and support, why reinvent the wheel? Humans love sharing and collaborating, the secret to our success as a species is that we are great at learning so why would you not take advice from someone with the experience that you need.

But your idea doesn’t need to be ‘scalable’ it just needs to have meaning to someone else.

Of course life isn’t that simple, unfortunately money cannot be ignored we do need it to provide us with the lifestyles we desire but what we get up in the morning for and why we create new ideas and supply services is far more complicated that the pay cheque.

Understanding why you want to do something and if your idea can fulfil that need is far more important than ensuring that it is scalable.

Why does it annoy me so much?

Because I think that these ideas are damaging. They tell would be entrepreneurs that their ideas are not valuable enough.

They suggest that a small business owner aspires to be the next CEO of a multinational. It is patronising and based on out of date thinking about what is valuable in the world.

Entrepreneurs are an amazing breed; they are creative and enthusiastic and nothing should get in the way of that if we want to create a better world and continue to innovate.