Whether it’s a classic light bulb or a ‘’Eureka’’ moment, entrepreneur ideas come from simple things. Though we might imagine that these ideas burst out of creative people’s brains and there are a few lucky ones who get struck with inspiration. That isn’t always the case.
If you are wondering whether entrepreneurship is not for you because you don’t think you have great ideas or maybe you have an idea but are not sure what to do next, this will be perfect for you. In this article, we will help you to get a clear picture of your ideas and guide you through the process of bringing them to life. Now let’s start from the beginning, where do entrepreneurs get their ideas.
Entrepreneurs creating new business ideas
Let’s talk about the famous singer Sam Smith, and the story behind his famous song ‘’stay with me’’ which won several big awards. There is a popular saying ‘’what doesn’t kill you makes you strong’’. The idea of writing the song came from his emotional heartbreak. His heart may have been shattered but it brought four Grammy Awards and a successful career for him.
But let’s understand what exactly sparks the imagination and helps to create ideas. We have come up with three ground-level simple sources from where ideas can be traced;
Passion
Some ideas make us excited, and we feel like sharing them with the world without wasting a second. It’s a feeling of intense passion and enthusiasm toward something. We feel strongly about them. Let’s say Bob lives in a small town and loves making coffee. He always talks about it with excitement and enjoys the whole process of making coffee. Let’s say he visited a coffee shop in the town, bought a nice steamy cup of coffee, and was left very disappointed with the taste.
He knows that he can make a much better cup of coffee. So he decides to open his very own coffee shop so that people can know how good coffee tastes. This is how an idea came to his mind to start his coffee shop.
Sandy talking about entrepreneur’s passion says,
“Passion to an entrepreneur means a strong drive to change an idea or a method into a profitable venture. Passion in business must go hand in hand with profitability to be a successful entrepreneur.”
Passion gives you an idea and a reason to work towards mystery. It gives you purpose in life which is to strive for better for yourself and others.
Ego
Dropbox was founded because someone was annoyed that they kept forgetting their thumb drive at home. Under armor was founded because someone was annoyed by their shirts getting wet out of sweat every time. There must be something that bugs you and make you cringe. And you feel like doing something about it. This kind of behavior also leads to ideas and implementation. You realize the problem because either you are facing it or someone around you is. The idea comes through observation and then by allowing your mind to wander to discover different solutions to the problem.
Some experiences are deep that hurt your ego. There is nothing wrong with ego. However, you must learn to give directions to your ego. Giving the right direction to your ego can turn things upside down and change things for you.
Complaints
The Harvard Business Review article, “How entrepreneurs craft strategies that work,” found that” new ventures are usually started to solve problems the founders have grappled with personally.”
Life is full of complaints, problems, and opinions. Complaints are considered the building blocks of entrepreneurship. If you do not complain about anything, maybe people you are connected with do. Listen to what they say, their dislikes, likes, and complaints, and use quick insight to get an idea of what to do for them or how can you change the situation?
Phav Doroath, a young entrepreneur who realized that people in Asia lack access to clean water started the company WaterSHED. Enrique Gomez-Junco is a Mexican entrepreneur who is trying to solve the energy crisis by providing energy solutions through Optima Energia. There are countless other examples of entrepreneurs who are trying to solve problems in their societies. Look around, and you will find them among you. Hence, you can also build something to answer a complaint.
Besides these three major factors, entrepreneurial ideas can also be driven by the following factors.
Experience
The workplace is where you can get a variety of ideas, and it can be a business opportunity for you. Many people working for other people realize halfway that if they put this much effort into building their own business, it can be worth it.
Often the workplace provides viable ideas, generated based on insight and knowledge about the market, customers, competitors, and potential needs. It also saves you from experimenting with a whole new idea, as you have gathered initial research from your workplace. Even established entrepreneurs start working together, and once they build something, they make their way into a different idea.
Getting an idea from what’s trending
Observing trends is a great way to generate an idea for entrepreneurs. If you closely observe, entrepreneurs focus on what’s popular around them and find market opportunities. Let’s take an example of the famous Entrepreneur Elon MUSK, who always focuses on current trends and cashes in on them. He focused on electric cars, neural links, and cryptocurrency, and now he is digging into outer space, and exploring the opportunities beyond the earth.
Recently he shocked everyone with his offer and execution to buy Twitter the social media giant. He knows the importance of trends in real-time. Similarly, you can focus on what is popular these days, and have a potential market for the emerging product.
Exhibitions, workshops, and conferences
Attending a conference, exhibition and workshop is a great place to discover business ideas. It broadens horizons and gives great insight into different opportunities. They are a great source of networking, and socializing that can help in building business. Often successful entrepreneurs create online workshops, attend conferences to share their experiences, and attend exhibitions to explore additional opportunities. They don’t stop with one idea, they keep looking for opportunities to interact with others, and boost their productivity.
Market research
Another way entrepreneurs create their ideas is through market research, extracting ideas from both primary and secondary sources. They also search to find various business ideas. For example, researching any local product, or finding a demand gap. And then fill those gaps by creating new enterprises.
After finding an idea, the next thing is to share the idea with people to get an understanding of different perspectives and insight for practical implementation. Therefore, you must be careful with whom you are sharing your ideas.
Who would you share your idea with?
It is crazy how people spend their time thinking their idea is one of the most unique, and creative ones. They then build a wall so that no one can steal their idea. They think I’m not going to tell anybody, then ill get a whirlwind of success. However, we would say ‘’don’t do that’’. Do not keep your idea a secret.
By sharing your idea publicly, you can get instant feedback from potential customers, employees, and investors. If you keep it a secret, you will not get real-world experience. They will also tell you whose underground working on the same idea you don’t know.
Therefore, we would recommend you to talk about it, blog about it, and read the comments. Additionally, you can share your idea with entrepreneurial workgroups, advisers, and consultants, financing entrepreneurs, mentors, and your target customers.
The next big thing is to workshop your idea to get a bigger picture of the whole process. Through the Business Model Canvas, you can put your idea into something bigger for your business.
Business Model Canvas
Business Model Canvas helps you to put the fundamental piece of your idea into a complete plan. It is created by a company called strategizer to help lean startups. The days of 30-day business plans are pretty much over with the creation of this amazing template.
If you go for financing for your business, most investors care about your story, proof your idea works, understanding of your customers, and financial plan. And this canvas has all of it. It has different sections for all of your business pieces:
Value proposition
This section focuses on the value you are providing to your customers. Simply answering the question: why do your customers want to buy what you are selling?
Customer segmentation
In this section, divide your customers according to different criteria, such as age, country, or taste. It’s the demographics that help you focus on the potential customers.
Customer relationship
You must understand who these people are, and what type of relationship our customers expect us to establish?
Channels
Channels are the medium that we use to reach the end-users. You must streamline your channels, and formulate strategies ahead.
Key resource
Key resources include all the assets, capital, and other resources you will be using for your business. Such as workspace, workstation, etc.
Key partners
Your key partners are those who are involved with your business and share partnership in the profit.
Key activities
All the activities that are conducted to produce the product, or to render the services.
Cost structure
The cost of establishing your business, operation charges, and all other costs that occur to start your business, and continue for the future.
Revenue streams
What are our customers willing to pay for? Or where your regular income will be coming from?
Business Model Canva clarifies everything for you using a few sections, however, it takes effort to identify all these sections and fill the canvas. It’s not that easy, it takes a lot of research, market information, and insight to create the canvas. Meanwhile, fulfilling the canvas means you have clarity of your ideas, and you can start right away.
How to check if your business idea is viable
Finally, it’s important to check the viability of your idea, though you will get a clear understanding of the viability from the business Canvas model, however, if still there remain some doubts, you can use different ways to check the viability of your idea. Here are a few ways for checking an idea;
Check numbers: You must get an idea of the expenses, revenue, savings, and operational charges. Figures that help you in your monthly run rate. How does this, in the long run, sustain your business?
Talk to experts: people who provide consultancy to businesses understand the insight and how business functions. Since they work with multiple businesses every day, they can tell you if your idea is worth trying.
People in the same business: if your idea is inspired by an existing business, do check with the same business owners who have practical experience, and they can tell you how their business is going and what the possibilities of growth in the future are.
Build a prototype or test service: this is one of the best methods to understand the viability of the idea. It is getting into it directly, interacting with customers, and getting real-time feedback.
Final thoughts
The internet is filled with ideas, and business plans, and getting access to life-changing ideas is one click away. Old days are gone when there was less access to information, figures, data, and facts. Now everything is available online, and even online there are multiple platforms available to share ideas, win prizes or check the viability of an idea, or get expert feedback. However, getting innovative, and the original idea still requires your passion, ego, and complaint. Once you realize these, you will go online and look for solutions following your passion, feeding your ego, and solving complaints.
We would recommend you understand your passion, ego, and existing problems to create something, or if you have any idea, go for a prototype or test service to get started. Or you can also fill out Business Model Canvas to get an insight and acknowledge how reliable and viable your idea is.
