Recently, I found myself in a brainstorming session with a friend who was trying to come up with a new business idea. He was really struggling. In order to guarantee success, he felt like his new business had to be incredibly innovative and ground breaking.

His thought process may have been logical, but he was completely wrong.

If you have been hesitant about starting a company because you lack a groundbreaking idea, stop worrying.

You don’t have to invent the hovercar. Some of the most successful businesses are built around products and ideas that are a far cry from new and innovative. There is a lot of money to be made reinventing new ideas, or “building a better mouse trap.” If you take something that has already been successful and make it better people will buy it. Let me give you an example.

Apple has sold a lot of iPods. In reality, the iPod is an old idea combined with modern technology and amazing marketing. Apple knew the idea was sound because Sony had already proved there was a massive market for portable music players with its Walkman, and other companies had already been making MP3 players for a few years. By fusing the basic “mini hard drive in a box” setup developed by Compaq in 1998 with proven marketing, Apple took two old ideas and morphed them into a money fountain.

Amount of Actual Innovation- A little

Amount of Actual Money- Mucho

So while it is possible to make a ton of cash building a better mousetrap, not everybody has ability to secure enough capital to design and build an expensive consumer product. Luckily for the entrepreneur, marketing and the “Sheeple Effect” makes it possible to sell people on the same basic products over and over again. Here is proof that people will buy the same exact thing over and over again, especially if the marketing is good.

Despite the fact that Starbucks grew too fast and recently had to close hundreds of stores, they still stand as proof that it is possible to sell something that has been around for a long time (Coffee), and make huge amounts of money doing it.

Hollywood gives us another great example that proves you can sell people on the same thing over and over again. I only have to say two words; Action Movies. The plot is always the same, and the movies always make lots of money. In fact, there have been over 20 James Bond films, which have been profitable to the tune of many billions of dollars.

If you still don’t believe me that all it takes to make lots and lots of money is a proven idea and good marketing, think about “Get Rich Quick” schemes. People keep coming out with new ones because the sheeple keep buying them. What is easier than making money by spamming people online and begging them to buy your nonsensical e-books?

Let’s recap.

1. Stop worrying about thinking of a new idea and use a proven one.
2. Add lots of marketing.
3. ???
4. Profit.