If you have access to a research library, you could do some research and write a feasibility study in a day of work. A feasibility study would be the first draft of your business plan after working on it for a day.
Do some basic market research at the library, know how big your market (users) would be and some basic information about them (are they 13-25 WoW players or 30-45 baby booomers.)
Find similar services to your idea and do some research on them. Even if your idea is really novel, you can find replacement products and research them.
e.g.: My company is a lot like Hacker News, but for serious hard core chefs. Hacker News make X amount of dollars with a userbase of Y users, we could probably do something similar.
So spend one day of research and produce a 1-2 page document with your research. That will really help you start to think of how to convert an idea or service into a business. Even if you have a strong idea of how to make money on a service, knowing this basic info will help you polish your ideas and help you sound really smart when talking to investors, potential partners, and even customers.
Do some basic market research at the library, know how big your market (users) would be and some basic information about them (are they 13-25 WoW players or 30-45 baby booomers.)
Find similar services to your idea and do some research on them. Even if your idea is really novel, you can find replacement products and research them. e.g.: My company is a lot like Hacker News, but for serious hard core chefs. Hacker News make X amount of dollars with a userbase of Y users, we could probably do something similar.
So spend one day of research and produce a 1-2 page document with your research. That will really help you start to think of how to convert an idea or service into a business. Even if you have a strong idea of how to make money on a service, knowing this basic info will help you polish your ideas and help you sound really smart when talking to investors, potential partners, and even customers.