How To Keep Big Ideas From Being Big Failures Simple, Yet Effective Business Advice from Clients on Demand Founder, Russ Ruffino.

As an entrepreneur, it's not uncommon to have big ideas. Ideas that, if worked properly, can take your business to higher levels.

Maybe you've came up with a way to enhance your products or services that would advance your company lightyears ahead of your competitors. Or perhaps you've thought up a new gadget or tool that, once developed and released, could potentially change the world as it exists today.

The problem with having these big ideas is that sometimes they fail. And they can fail hard.

Big Ideas Can Equal Big Failures

Take Coca-Cola, for instance. On April 23, 1985, this well-known company announced that it was changing its formula and releasing the "new Coke." While its goal was to update a soft drink that had been 99 years in the making, it actually had the opposite effect. Consumers were mad. Real mad.

People had grown to know and love the taste of Coke, so the thought of it changing didn't sit right with their taste buds. Many protested the company's actions, creating such a stir that, in addition to being picked up by news sources everywhere on that day, it is still being talked about today.

Ultimately, Coke recovered and is still loved by many. However, it easily could have went the other way, potentially causing a revolt big enough to force them to close their doors.

So, what can you do to take your big ideas and turn them into wins versus risking them becoming huge failures capable of sinking your business? According to one entrepreneur, you simply do a numbers test.

The Numbers Test

In a People Stack Podcast, Russ Ruffino shares that his company, Clients on Demand, is on track to earn $20 million this year. This number is up from $4.5 million in 2016, just two short years ago, and Ruffino says that one thing has helped him reach this level of success is that he and his team use data to help them decide what to do. "We always run the numbers," says Ruffino.

For instance, if your big idea is to recreate one of your current products, how much will it cost your company to make and test a prototype? What about manufacturing costs on a larger scale?

Think also about expenses related to marketing the updated product line and costs associated with creating enough buzz to get it to really sell. Put them all together and see what the numbers are telling you.

Sometimes New Isn't Better

You may just find that newer isn't always better. In fact, Ruffino says this is typically the case as, usually what he finds at Clients on Demand is they can typically "get to our income goals faster by just getting a little bit better at what we're already doing."

Benjamin P. Hardy, a former top writer for Medium.com in the self-improvement and entrepreneurship space, agrees and adds, "It doesn't matter how good your strategy is, if you're not skilled at what you do, that strategy won't take you very far."

That's why Hardy recommends that you put yourself in challenging situations. "This is how you evolve," he says. And be sure to follow your own path and keep your why's in front of you along the way to remind you of what is driving you forward. Let these motivate you when times get tough.

It's only natural to come up with big ideas in business. That's what being an entrepreneur is about. Just make sure you follow your numbers and those big ideas can potentially become big successes.