Trying to find ideas that turn into viable business?
Then stop looking for ideas, look for problems to be solved in the world.
“The genesis of great companies is answering simple questions that change the world, not the desire to become rich.” – Guy Kawasaki
Here’s what you need to find real-world problems – a More Practical Framework.
The Frameworks, with which many successful businesses have been born.
NO FLUFF, NO THEORY, just based on experience.
More than 15 ways to get Business ideas that the market (your customer) needs.
Ready? let’s go.
Ideas can be generated from a lot of means like;
1. Is There a Better Way?
Frustration with current options is the reason behind this.
If you’ve encountered something which is not up to the mark or where you think improvement can be done.
But this should be a compelling need or a desire otherwise please will ignore it.
You can have feedback from your potential customers on what they think about existing products and their expectations.
Case Study
Larry Page and Sergey Brin thought measuring inbound Links was a better way to prioritize search results and started Google.
2. Focus on a dysfunctional industry or where the market leader is weak
Look for an Industry which is incapable of fulfilling the need of the Market.
You can search for opportunities in the following areas –
1) The way of doing business
Case Study: IBM distributed computers through resellers, so Dell could innovate by selling direct.
2) When the customers are dissatisfied
Renting DVDs and Music CDs and returning them to physical stores opened doors for Netflix and Apple iPod.
3) When the market leader is milking a cash cow and stop innovating
Case study: When telecom companies like Airtel, Idea, and Vodafone were not innovating JIO arrived and disrupted the Indian telecom sector with 4G.
3. Look for unrecognized value
Imagine potential pricing innovations (e.g. hourly —> fixed)
1. Cabin
The road trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco is about 400 miles. When you add traffic to the mix, that’s a pretty long haul. Someone who lives in Los Angeles and has business in San Francisco (or vice versa) might lose almost two workdays just commuting, not to mention the cost of an overnight stay. Thinking about this major loss of time and productivity, Cabin founders Gaetano Crupi and Tom Currier came up with a solution.
The cabin is a startup travel company that gives customers the freedom and convenience to travel overnight. Customers fall asleep in one city as they board their bus and settle into a sleep pod at 11 p.m. They then wake up in another city at 7 a.m. With ride costs as low as $84 and the freedom to book only days in advance, Cabin offers those traveling for business or pleasure a more affordable and spontaneous alternative.
Crupi and Currier recognized that drive time between cities was eating up productivity and creating a barrier to travel. Airline tickets were expensive, and flights took nearly as long as the drive. By offering an overnight option, a customer could get a full day in the city of his choice, as well as a full night’s sleep, before the start of the next workday.
4. Productize a service
A productized service takes a common service such as web or graphic design and transforms it into an off-the-shelf solution.
An online personal fitness trainer can have a handful of clients at one time due to time constraints.
They can productize their service by recording the training in advance based on different goals such as weight loss, muscle building, etc., and then selling it for a one-time or monthly subscription fee.
5. Solve things that may become problems
Problems that currently don’t exist but will certainly going become a big problem in the near future.
Ventures based on AI are the best examples of this.
Self-driving cars,
he undertakes, including Solar City and Tesla Motors, may make some scoff, but lack of fossil fuels will become a problem in the near future, and Elon is taking steps to fix that before it happens. This gives him the time to innovate, as he’s first in and it gives him market share. Good luck to others catching up!
If you think there’s not yet a market for your idea, you may just be able to create one by appealing to those that, like you, believe it will be a problem in the future.
At present, there are numerous potential problems with obvious solutions, including desalination plants for California, a state that is quickly drying up and running out of water, preventative medication for diseases that could become problems (like ebola), makeup and accessories to protect privacy when face recognition software really takes off, and breeding programs or nature reserves for animals that will become extinct without help.
Adapt to evolving needs
Trying to find ideas that turn into viable businesses?
Then stop looking for ideas, look for problems to be solved in the world instead.
“The genesis of great companies is answering simple questions that change the world, not the desire to become rich.” – Guy Kawasaki
Here’s what you need to find real-world problems – a More Practical Framework.
The Frameworks, with which many successful businesses have been born.
NO FLUFF, NO THEORY, just based on experience.
More than 15 ways to get Business ideas that the market (your customer) needs.
Ready? let’s go.
Ideas can be generated from a lot of means like;
#1 Is There a Better Way?
Frustration with current options is the reason behind this.
If you’ve encountered something which is not up to the mark or where you think improvement can be done.
But this should be a compelling need or a desire otherwise please will ignore it.
You can have feedback from your potential customers on what they think about existing products and their expectations.
Case Study: Larry Page and Sergey Brin thought measuring inbound Links was a better way to prioritize search results and started Google.
#2 Focus on a dysfunctional industry or where the market leader is weak
An Industry is incapable of fulfilling the need of the Market.
Conditions where make you can search for opportunities
1) The way of doing business
Case Study: IBM distributed computers through resellers, so Dell could innovate by selling direct.
2) When the customers are dissatisfied
Renting DVDs and Music CDs and returning them to physical stores opened doors for Netflix and Apple iPod.
3) When the market leader is milking a cash cow and stop innovating
Case study: When telecom companies like Airtel, Idea, and Vodafone were not innovating JIO arrived and disrupted the Indian telecom sector with 4G.
#3 Look for unrecognized value
Imagine potential pricing innovations (e.g. hourly —> fixed)
#4 Productize a service
A productized service takes a common service such as web or graphic design and transforms it into an off-the-shelf solution.
An online personal fitness trainer can have a handful of clients at one time due to time constraints
They can productize their service by recording the training in advance based on different goals such as weight loss, muscle building, etc., and then selling it for a one-time or monthly subscription fee.
#5 Solve things that may become problems
Adapt to evolving needs
#6 Save people money
#7 Make people’s lives easier
#8 Make chores or things that feel like tasks less unpleasant
#9 Fulfill a need or Burning Desire
Appeal to a base emotion
#10 Steal others ideas
Exercise: Complete this sentence
If your startup never existed, the world would be worse off because…..
The Sweet Spot
If you’ve got an idea, the next step is to find a viable sweet market spot in the market.
Use this Venn diagram
Expertise: You must have a core fundamental knowledge and abilities to create something in order to make your startup work
Opportunity: You may find an existing market or potential one. Either is okay, but do a reality check of the size of the opportunity (market) in the next few years.
Passion: Success for a business may take a long time and effort, so should at least not hate what you’re doing.
Having passion makes you do your best at your work. Think about it, if you don’t do your best how will great things happen to you and your business.
How to Pick a Good one from the rest of the crappy thoughts?
Getting an Idea is not a big deal.
Ideas often circulate daily in our mind- when you see something you get an idea, doing day-to-day work you get an idea when you hear anything new.
Before you realize whether it is feasible or not Imaginations take us.
But what do you think, whatever comes to your mind can bring a business to reality?
I think the answer is No.
However, few people trust their intuition and try to run a business out of it and failure hits them early.
Impact of Idea on Entire Business
At the Idea stage, you’re forming the DNA of your start-up and this genetics may evolve over time or you may pivot after you validate your idea.
But an idea is what you start with, it’s a starting point of your journey.
If you chose the wrong starting point it will take you nowhere.
One bad idea can cost you a loss of money, will eat your several months or even years and efforts as well.
So it makes sense to evaluate an idea, worth pursuing or not.
Recommended Reading: How to Evaluate a Billion Doller Idea: Beginner’s guide (1)
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