According to a recent survey, a fifth of people invest at least 25 hours a week looking for space to create new ideas for entrepreneurship. Ideas that mostly arise outside the office, say at the supermarket, while driving the car or during a social gathering.
However, while good business could arise anywhere, it is always a concern to know where to find innovative business ideas. The formula to find them is simpler than it seems and can be summarized in a single sentence: “DO IT STEP BY STEP!”
In this article, I’ll share some suggestions on how to make the most of your mental abilities and the most favorable environments to find ideas and new ways to earn money.
10 Steps to develop new ideas
1) Let your ideas flow naturally: The first step in generating ideas is to let these arise without forcing them. Keeping an open mind and willing to an idea is the best scenario for these to arise naturally.
2) Constantly observe your surroundings: The most fabulous business ideas have emerged as solutions to everyday needs. Be observant and try to find in each place possible ways to improve the lives of people and soon you will surely be becoming a generator of potential business.
3) Do not discard any idea: The ideas themselves are not necessarily good or bad. In fact we make them good or bad according to what we do with them. Most times, our ideas need time to take shape and become something even more attractive and potentially good to undertake.
4) Write them on paper: This is a very simple but powerful advice. Larry Page, one of Google’s creative kids, says his idea came up one night while he slept. Suddenly he jumped out of his bed and wrote it in a small notebook. A good idea should be written in the moment to prevent it from vanishing in the multitude of thoughts.
5) Give them form patiently: Once you have a good idea in your hands, the next step is to shape it. Consult with optimistic people who think about your business idea. Ask them for suggestions on how they could improve it. Eventually you will discover interesting details to make it more valuable. Write on paper the important aspects that can transform it into a good business. And above all, be patient.
6) Have fun: Find innovative business ideas is a creative process very similar to the artist who creates a musical or a beautiful painting. First visualize his work and then reflect it. And in the process, have fun! Let your creativity come out and this will help you relax and get better results.
7) Make a draft of your project: Once you have worked on the initial proposal, prepare a first draft of what your business would be. Write on paper what you hope to achieve, what people you want to attend to, what are the scope of your entrepreneurial project and what you need to achieve it. In general terms, your first draft should answer all the fundamental questions that will help you begin to draw up a plan.
8) Be visionary: Do not limit your possibilities by not having all the resources to carry out your endeavor. In fact many big businesses started without even imagining the scope they could have. Seeing beyond your current possibilities can even boost so much energy that soon you will be doing everything necessary to get the resources to turn it into a business.
9) Draws up a business plan: A business plan is the map that will guide you on the road to building your company. A good plan should contain all the specific details of what you want to do. Basically your plan should answer these questions: What do I want to do? How am I going to do it? When will I do it? With whom or who will I do it? Where will I do it? Responding appropriately to these questions is called: Strategy.
10) Finally: Action! The last and no less important step in the creative process is action. All of the above would not be useful if you do not act. Many people feel frustrated and unsuccessful because they go to step 9 but never get started. The fear of being wrong can block many people but remember:
It is better to start, to make mistakes and to straighten the course than to have never done anything. So do not stop taking action.
Innovative Business Ideas vs Known Ideas: What is Better?
Maybe it is true that to have more chances of success requires passion for your idea, instead of just seeing it as money, but it is also true that the latter is the ultimate goal of any company, i.e. “What entrepreneur would have your business only for the sake of the clients, without thinking about their financial situation?”
The saying goes that “all roads lead to New York”. However, imagine that among all these roads that lead to New York, there are shortcuts, land routes with well-made roads, others with many potholes. There are also routes by sky and sea.
Some will be faster than others, some safer and less exhausting and so on.
With the analysis of this saying, you must be clear about one thing: there are several steps you can take to turn your business idea into a real and solid company. You must select from a multitude of routes and choose the one that you think is best for you, that is, choose the safest path that will lead you to success (Why not? The less hard and exhausting way too).
In general, to succeed in a project and make it grow over the years to become a more mature organization, it requires a good management plan, which is why it is so important when starting a business. Random success, more than a miracle, is an obvious rarity.
However, for any company to exist, it has to have a creative and innovative idea that serves as a starting point. Business ideas are basically of two types, known and innovative.
Known Business Ideas
Create a company that sells products or provides services that are already common in the market. Seen from afar, this type of activity presents the least risk (compared to an innovative idea, for example).
However, there is no guarantee that such a company will succeed, because there are other facets and parameters that must be taken into account.
You have to be creative to survive, since your potential competitors surely have much more seniority and experience. Care should also be taken in management and marketing, do not be fooled by how simple an activity may seem.
In addition to the above, you must be able to differentiate yourself from your potential competitors. And to do so, you must find new elements that can improve customer service or your product, and differentiate it from others.
The easiest thing you can do to find an innovative idea for your business is to think that you are not satisfied with your product or service.
This is an exercise that requires you to put yourself in the shoes of the clients, in order to find possible changes that will make a better experience for the buyers in your business.
A very simple example of the above: Suppose you are a fan of chocolate bars and always carry at least one in your pocket or purse. The problem is that they melt in the midday heat or break when pressed with other objects in your pocket or purse.
How could we solve this problem with chocolate? Simple, you will have to find a formula that solves the problem of heat. In other words, you must make sure that the chocolate bars that you offer to the market are more resistant to heat.
Regardless of whether the price is a bit above the competition, this “plus” could certainly promote your sales.
Innovative business ideas
It is the antithesis of mundane activities, since you plan to offer services or products for a market that does not exist yet. Look around: What needs of people do you know that the market does not solve?
Usually innovative ideas are risky, and should be analyzed with realistic and well-studied parameters. However, this leap into the unknown can bring a lot of benefits.
In addition, if you are successful, your innovative product or service will make your company enjoy an extraordinary reputation.
In conclusion, big risks = big profits or big losses. You play double or nothing when starting a company in this way. Of course, “game” is just a metaphor, because as expected, the creation of a company it is more than just a game in particular.
It is possible to put the odds in your favor, minimizing the risks, even in an innovative idea.
3 Final Points to Generate More Ideas
1) Be observant: While you are in the bank row, in the supermarket box or at the cinema. Always watch around you. Try to discover latent needs in people, in systems or problems that scream at you “here is an opportunity!”
2) Ask yourself: How could I improve services in this place? Which product would experience different company? What could you create to make people’s lives easier? How many would be willing to consider my proposed solution?
3) Consider crazy ideas: Do not stop for thinking that some idea is absurd. Some of the most creative solutions have arisen as a result of occurrences that someone thought would never work. Do not give up before the first “no”, remember that there may be thousands who say “yes”.
