The reason why formulating the project idea is the hardest part is because it is the foundation for the entire project. The project that you run is meant to turn your ideas into reality. Without a solid idea, you cannot create something new or innovative. Another way to think about is asking yourself the question: how do you plan on hitting a target if you don’t know what it is? I know that the project idea is different from your project objectives but the idea addresses a problem that you are trying to solve, and it’s your solution to that problem. Coming up with a project idea can be difficult because someone else or a competitor may have already addressed it, the scope may be too vague, or it may cost too much money to create your product or capability. Business and marketing are very important because they determine the market to which your product or capability could be introduced. Understanding how to make your product appealing to consumers, the number of people it will benefit, and the product’s cost are important things that marketing and business address. Ultimately, you need to make money off of your product. People in business and marketing can help determine any potential obstacles that one could face when pursuing a project idea. This helps determine the potential of an idea, enabling you to make a decision between two or more ideas that you can pursue. The way that you convince a company to support you is by simply creating a business plan in which you talk about the specifics of a problem, and show that addressing this problem is worthwhile because the initial investment that you are asking for will result in higher gains for them. You have to describe the problem using quantitative data, and describe the potential results numerically so that a company will be convinced to fund your project over someone else’s.