HORSE

You don’t play 5 on 5 against the big boys in their own arena, but instead you force them to play H-O-R-S-E with you. You give yourself a better chance to win when you simplify the game and its rules. You force your bigger competitors to compete on your home court.

Your speed and quickness are advantages in the marketplace. Use that ability to prototype your idea and launch quicker into the public. You can make quick decisions without having to go through any bureaucracy for approval. Instead of only attempting to appeal the gatekeepers with your product, you can appeal to the people directly with the internet and online communication tools like Twitter and Facebook. More people are wired to the internet than ever before.

Threadless is a great example of a t-shirt company that is taking advantage of the new economy. They changed the game to their benefit. They sell directly to their community of customers without going through any retailers. They don’t design any t-shirts, which is left up to the community. They don’t choose which t-shirts are printed, that is also left to the community. They have built a platform that is run by the community for the community. They take the traditional model of designer to retail stores to customers and turned it upside down. Threadless is designer directly to other designers and friends.

You don’t have to invent a new idea from scratch, you can modify what’s existing and make it better.

For example, there are plenty of great designs on Threadless with high ratings that for one reason or another have not been turned into t-shirts.

You could start a company based on Threadless castaways. They were good enough to be voted by a majority of people to be excellent designs and you can leverage the same community to talk about your products. You are helping a group of designers who want their product made in real life actually get it done. Their friends and people all around the globe can enjoy their art on a t-shirt.

You can start off with the Top 100 designs that were castaways and then offer print each design in limited quantities of 100. There is no rule that says that Threadless designs that haven’t been printed aren’t good enough for the public.

This is just one way you can spin off an existing idea. There are many ways you can provide value to people, you just have to look for ways to explore ideas differently.

Narrow your focus, simplify the rules and communicate with your users directly.