How to come up with a great business idea
Posted on 02. Feb, 2011 by mike in Business
Everywhere you turn another successful startup is being sung praise for its miraculous achievements. But just as often as we here these success stories, we here the “entrepreneur to homeless” type of stories that I hate. These types of stories turn millions of would be gun-ho entrepreneurs into unsatisfied, cubicle workers. We’ve all heard these horror stories but most of these failures come down to two major mistakes:
- 1. Owners giving up on their business because it hasn’t performed as well as they thought or because they couldn’t handle the stress.
2. Not having a great idea and a fool-proof plan.
While some businesses may go out for reasons that can’t be planned for, many others do go out for the reasons mentioned above. That is why having a sound business idea is important.
Ideas aren’t always perfect
I’m going to let you in a little secret that will save you a lot of trouble. Don’t look for that perfect business idea, because that perfect business idea will never come. Businesses will almost always have flaws and while its good to scrutinize an idea, be careful not to be over analyze it.
Revolutionary ideas are a pain
This is going to be controversial because a few entrepreneurs have grown rich from revolutionary ideas; Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Jobs, to name a few. However, most revolutionary ideas aren’t the ones that make it big. Revolutionary business ideas a rarely successful for several reasons:
- Your on your own, in terms of help. If your idea is truly revolutionary nobody will know enough about what you’re doing to help you
- Lots of trial and error in order to figure out what works
- No demand for what you offer
- People don’t like change, expect high marketing budgets if you want to sell your idea to the public.
The best thing to do is let other people experiment with these ground breaking ideas, while you stick to ideas that have already been perfected.
Piggyback off others success or non success
Great ideas don’t only come from people with a great business sense. Yes it is true! Even people with a bad business sense can come up with great ideas. Identifying a business that is managed poorly and either buying it or starting a competing business is a great way to start a business. The key to this though is to out do your competition in every aspect. In order to make this method work you need to out-market, out-promote, out-negotiate and out-perform your competition. Let your business skills go to work, because if you take this route you will need them.
Improve on what is already there
There are a lot of businesses, A LOT! Most of them look-alike and function alike. Starting yet another business like the rest isn’t going to make you money. What you should do is ask yourself “Why would anyone want to my (insert business here) instead of the one at the top of google, down the street, etc.” By identifying what you can provide that your competitors don’t you’ve already taken a step many business owners overlook. Being the first in an industry isn’t as important as offering the most. This method is, in my opinion, the very best way to start a business. Here are some companies that started this way, perhaps you’ve heard of them…
- Walmart – Beat competitors by having a smaller mark up on goods.
Amazon – Beat competitors by offering customers the best possible experience.
Google – Finely tuned search engine offered better results than competitors.
Fill a need, don’t make one
Creating a need is hard work, you really have to know what you’re doing i.e., it’s for the experts. Companies like Apple are great at this, but for the first time business owner that doesn’t have billions of dollars it won’t be easy. Instead you should find an already existent need that has not been filled and fill it. You can do this easily by thinking about inconveniences that you have faced and providing a solution to them. Nobody likes inconveniences and in order to avoid them most people are willing to pay. This is the simplest method for starting a business. It requires very little thought, just find something that is an inconvenience. If it is on the internet, write a program or an info product that deals with the issue. If it is inconvenience that doesn’t deal with the internet, products and services are your best options.
Finding a spectacular business idea isn’t as hard as you think. If you keep your eyes peeled you’ll find a great very quickly. Your idea is only the beginning, how you execute it will determine how successful it will be.
