During these tough financial times I have found myself and others looking for new ways to make money. My friends and I have put together these bi-weekly think tanks of ideas that we would be able to do on the side and start making some of that extra money. Though, none of the money I receive now is extra.

Here are a few steps to get your idea group off the ground.

• Do what you’re passionate about: what are you collectively passionate about? Are your motivations philanthropic or profit driven? There are a lot of people to help out there now and some amazing opportunities.
• Have a central meeting place and set time that you adhere to every time. We meet every other week at a central location that provides a computer and a projector to do immediate research on idea’s that might come up.
• Set ground rules This is something that should be taken very seriously. There could be financial penalties or maybe the person that isn’t able to show up brings beers to the next meeting. No such thing as a bad idea, so on and so forth.
• Have an agenda – ie. first half hour discussing last meetings ideas and any new thoughts about them. Second half hour new ideas. Then the next hour putting a few beers back to increase creativity. Final half hour, best ideas of the night. However you would like to run that.
• Clearly understand your purpose – is this going to be a full time job? Is it an invention? Is it a business? Is it feasible to pull off with the people in the room? etc.
• Set deadlines: 5 brainstorming sessions, 2 sessions to narrow down the ideas, 1 session to put milestones, tasks, and goals together and map out a plan and then…
• Execute, Execute, Execute: get to work, hold each other accountable (we use redmine.org), and track progress.
• Have Fun: The 4 know that we are on to something big one of these nights but either way it’s a good break from the norm to get together and see how we can change the world. Whether it’s a nights and weekend venture or it turns into the next Google, it’ll be a fun ride, nonetheless.

Any other people doing stuff like this? I would love to hear your take thoughts.

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