Your vision is the bedrock of your next enterprise. You are the the Vision Holder.

1. Vision to Enterprise
Vision drives the new enterprise. Vision gives birth to a new idea. Vision holders are
the ones who hold together the startups focus. They can see the new enterprise that it
will become without details. They can see success and fit into their mission of an
existing business. They see a profitable niche. How does the vision for a new business
take shape in the entrepreneur’s mind? There are several paths to a vision.
1. Walkabouts. Observing in stores, in households you visit, on the street, in
museums, in meetings, in hospitals, schools, etc. Observations of customers
buying and using products will often open new opportunities. I have even seen a
new business while on vacation in new surroundings. Jack Dorsey, co-founder of
Twitter, is a serial wanderer
2. Read different of magazines, blogs, reports. There is an Angel Investor and
mentor in our accelerator who reads over 30 publications online. He tracks
trends, successes and failures, picking his future investments. Entrepreneur
“Mark Cuban reads more than three hours every day.” Inc.
3. Access market surveys and trend reports. They will tell you about the ups and
downs of sectors.
4. Conversations, meetings of kinds, presentations will show new opportunities. A
year of coffee in the morning with a friend led to a global festival.
5. Research holders of patents like universities. Often there are opportunities in
files. One fellow found a Bio-Tech patent in a university that fit his expertise.
6. Thinking looks like a waste of time. Even day-dreaming can lead to new ideas.
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner schedules two hours of thinking time per day. Inc.
Mark Zuckerberg has been observed pulled back in his chair tossing a ball in the
air.
7. Associations your observation and research match with your skills or the
mission of your company. It may lead to a spinoff. Once I saw huge demand for
a product in Macy’s that was not a fit for our mission, however I could make an
association to our mission with adaptations and it led to a very profitable
business. The famous story of the Post-Its at 3M from a solution.
8. Timing Recent research by the Kauffman Foundation determined that successful
companies act when the market right timing is right. More than the business plan,
it is timing results in success. The above steps are essential to protect you from
poor timing. I had one idea that took a decade to mature. Now I am happy to
have not acted on it.
These vision development tools can lead you to your new enterprise vision. As the
entrepreneur and vision holder, you will find yourself asking advice of a wide variety
of people. You will test out the concept with people. You will look for people who will

2. be your team. You will figure out the people, place production before you have even
begun to think about startup money, a mission or have a business plan.
Vision is the bedrock for your business. Everything is built on your vision. You are the
guardian of the vision. You are firm in your vision and nothing will impede you.