Key Concepts In Generating Business Ideas
- But the truth still remains that business opportunities abound. So if you are interested in starting a business, but you do not know what product or service to sell, then below are 10+ sources of small business ideas and opportunities. Top 10 Best Sources of Business ideas & Opportunities for 2020.
- The 300 Best Small Business Ideas Most articles you read about business ideas have been written by freelance writers who have no business experience and have no idea of what they are talking about. And they certainly don’t know what makes for a good business idea.
- 9 Factors for evaluating business ideas and opportunities. Since I was a kid I’ve been looking for new business ideas. In middle school I even started vending machine product wholesaling business hah. As I’ve grown older (and wiser ha) I’ve learned to screen and evaluate opportunities more effectively.
- Methods of Generating New Ideas for Entrepreneurs. Summary: Even with a wide variety of sources available, coming up with an idea as the basis for a new venture can still be a difficult problem. The entrepreneur can use several methods to help generate and test new ideas including focus groups, brainstorming and problem inventory analysis.
In screening your ideas, examine each one in terms of the following factors: 1. How much capital is needed to put up the business? In the first stage, you screen your ideas to narrow them down to about few choices. In the next stage, trim down the choices to two options. Mar 23, 2020 With that in mind, I put together this comprehensive list of the 101 Best Side Business Ideas You Can Start While Working a Full-Time Job, to help give you inspiration with proven ideas that can be executed on while you still keep your day.
The start of the year is a great time to gear up to start a business. But, of course, you first need to figure out a winning concept. 'You have to come up with a lot of ideas to be successful,' says Stephen Key, cofounder of the website inventright.com based in Glenbrook, Nev., and author of One Simple Idea for Startups and Entrepreneurs: Live Your Dreams and Create Your Own Profitable Company, (McGraw-Hill, 2012).
Key, who has licensed more than 20 products in the last 25 years, says he generates ideas by finding different ways to engage his mind, from walking the aisles of stores to brainstorming about holes in the marketplace.
Here are eight techniques from Key and other experts that could help get your creative juices flowing:
Ask yourself, 'What's next?
Successful business ideas are often ahead of the curve. Think about trends and technologies on the horizon and how you might move into those areas, says Sergio Monsalve, partner at Norwest Venture Partners, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based venture capital group. He suggests, for example, thinking about innovations related to the living room and home entertainment systems now that companies like Apple are developing new television technologies. 'What can that mean in terms of new ways to live in your house and be entertained?' he says.
Related: How to Turn a Worthless Business Idea into a Million-Dollar Startup
Do something about what bugs you
When Colin Barceloux was in college, he thought textbooks cost far too much. In 2007, two years after graduating, he decided to take action and founded Bookrenter.com, a San Mateo, Calif.-based business that offers textbook rentals at about a 60 percent discount. What began as a one-man operation created out of frustration now has 1.5 million users and 200 employees. 'You just have to look at what frustrates you,' he says. 'There's your business idea right there.'
Look for new niches
Your business idea doesn't have to reinvent the wheel. Take a look at what some of the big players in an industry are missing and figure out if you can fill the gaps, Key says. In 2003, for instance, he started the company Hot Picks, now based in San Jose, Calif., after realizing the major brands in the guitar pick industry weren't offering collectible novelty picks. Key designed a skull-shaped pick that filled an empty niche and was sold in 1,000 stores, including Wal-Mart and 7-Eleven. 'The big guys leave a tremendous amount of opportunity on the table,' he says.
Apply your skills to an entirely new field
Think about your skills and whether they might be useful in a new area, suggests Bill Fischer, professor ofinnovation management ?at IMD?, the top-rated Swiss business school, and co-author of The Idea Hunter: How to Find the Best Ideas and Make them Happen (Jossey-Bass, 2011). Consider, for example, JMC Soundboard, a Switzerland-based company that builds high-end loudspeakers. Jeanmichel Capt invented the speaker by applying his experience building guitars as a luthier, using the same resonance spruce to create a loudspeaker that produces a high-quality sound and looks like a sleek wood panel. There's also Providence, R.I.-based Dear Kate, a company founded by Julie Sygiel, who used her training in chemical engineering to create a stain-resistant, leak-proof underwear material that active women can use without worrying about menstrual leakage during a workout.
Related: Zipcar Timeline: From Business Idea to IPO to $500 Million Buyout
Find a category lacking recent innovations
When coming up with ideas, Key likes to identify markets that haven't had many recent innovations. For example, when he realized there were few new developments in the product information label business, he created Spinformation, a label consisting of two layers--a top layer that rotates with open panels through which you can see, and a bottom label that you can read by spinning the top layer over it. Companies needing to fit more information about a medication, for example, could use the extra label space for the details.
Make a cheaper version of an existing product
Companies often get their start by offering customers an existing product at a lower price. Take Warby Parker, an eyeglasses company launched in 2010 by four business school friends. The New York-based business sells prescription glasses, which are typically priced at $300 or more, for $95. Since its launch, it has grown to 100 employees.
Related Video: Warby Parker and Inspired Vision
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Talk to shoppers
Key Concepts In Generating Business Ideas For School
To come up with an idea that meets people's needs, there's no better way than by talking to shoppers. If you are interested in mountain bikes, hang out in the aisles of sports and bike shops and ask customers what they wish they could find in the marketplace. If you're interested in developing an e-commerce business, consider sending an online survey to potential customers to learn about their needs and interests.
Play the mix and match game
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Will be used in accordance with our Privacy PolicyYou've got a business idea you're jazzed about, but aren't sure if it's feasible. What you need to do is test the concept to see how it stands up to a series of rigorous questions.
'You are always testing,' says Andre Marquis, Executive Director of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship at Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. 'What you start with is rarely what you end up with.'
Where to begin? Here are 10 key questions to help you evaluate your business idea:
1. What is my customer profile?
Maybe your product or service idea seems like just the right solution for you, but can you identify a clear customer base beyond yourself? Ask what your customer's biggest pains are and how your product might help resolve them, says Alexander Osterwalder, co-author of Business Model Generation (Wiley, 2010) and founder of The Business Model Foundry, which provides digital tools to help develop business ideas. When David Dodge got the idea to start a tutoring business, he used Internet surveys to develop a psychographic analysis of his core customer. 'I tried to dig deep and find more,' he says. 'Understanding and segmenting your market is very important.' In 2005, he founded Sure Prep Learning in Scottsdale, Ariz., focusing his marketing on worried and competitive parents. Today, the business has more than 800 tutors.
2. What am I replacing?
Whatever your idea is, someone out there is buying something else in its place, says Jim Pulcrano, executive director of IMD, the top-rated Swiss business school. Ask yourself what makes your product compelling enough to replace what's already in the marketplace. This doesn't necessarily have to be limited to products that have a similar purpose as yours, Pulcrano says. You could also look at your target customers' spending habits, he says, and consider how you could get them to buy your product instead of something else they currently purchase.
3. How do I demonstrate this idea to others?
Make your idea as tangible as possible, says Steven Stralser, clinical professor of entrepreneurship at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale, Ariz. That might mean developing drawings or a working prototype. By figuring out how you can easily represent your idea to others, you'll start to see how much footing it has, Stralser says. 'The ability to show it to other people becomes very critical.'
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4. Who will I need on my team?
In the early stages, you'll need to figure out whom you can turn to for honest and informed advice about your ideas, Stralser says. And soon, you'll also need to think about whose brainpower you want on your side—whether in product development, marketing, IT or another function. Find a way to approach such people to gauge their interest in getting involved.
Related: How to Sharpen Your Decision-Making Skills
5. What resources do I need?
How can you actually make this idea happen? That requires asking what resources you'll need, from factories to computers to office space, Osterwalder says. Make a list of all the key assets and figure out whether you can obtain them before you invest a lot of time and money in testing and product development.
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6. How long will my purchasing cycle be?
You want to know the purchase cycle for your product or service so you can estimate your upfront cash needs. With a longer purchasing cycle, you'll need more money on the front end before you start bringing in revenue. If you are selling medical technology to a hospital, for instance, that transaction might take 18 months to complete. In contrast, a phone app can be purchased immediately.
7. What's a reasonable sales forecast?
You want to analyze the actual operation of the business as much as possible to come up with a solid sales forecast, Stralser says. For example, if you want to open a restaurant, don't just base your revenue forecast on annual restaurant sales in your city. For a more specific estimate, consider the size and seating capacity of your proposed restaurant, the expected average customer bill, and the hours of operation.
Related: 9 Proven Sales Tips for Introverts
8. How much growth potential does my idea offer?
Think about how big you want your business to be and figure out if your idea can meet your expectations. For example, if you are writing software, building simulations or making something by hand, you should realize that you may not grow as fast as if you're making something that can be mass produced. 'Are you selling your time, which is finite, or are you selling a product, which you can sell a million of?' Marquis says. 'A lot of times it's not obvious to people.'
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9. Do I possess the necessary skills?
Having an idea and making it happen are two very different things. Be honest in assessing whether you're qualified to turn your idea into a business, Pulcrano says. If an idea requires highly technical skills or business experience that you lack, will you be able to find someone who can fill those gaps?
Ways Of Generating Business Ideas
10. Can I see myself doing this for the next two years?
Coming up with an idea can be exciting, but are you willing to dedicate your life to it for at least the next two years? Windows anytime upgrade key generator windows 10. Do you have support from family, friends and mentors, and are you willing to make the necessary sacrifices? Dodge decides whether to pursue an idea partly based on how excited he and his team are about it. 'You have to look at opportunity cost and realize any new opportunity is going to take a tremendous amount of time and energy,' he says.