For some strange reason, everyone today has this false impression that entrepreneurship is so easy as if great business ideas just fall out of the sky. They don’t realize that there’s a lot of thought and planning that goes into coming up with a successful business idea. In the age of drop shipping, no one wants to put in the work to come up with original ideas anymore. Everyone wants to set up a “business” at the click of a button and make millions. Well, more often than not, it doesn’t work like that. True entrepreneurship is derived from innovation and the ability to see a need, fill a need. If you really want to run a successful business, you’ve got to get off the broke mentality. But where does the best business ideas come from?
Problem Solving
Many great business ideas identify a problem and solve it. The easiest way to come up with business ideas is to solve the problems you have. The second easiest is to solve problems others have. These don’t necessarily have to be huge problems but should address a pain point that other people can relate to. This will help later when you begin to establish who your target market is. Remember, just about every problem is an opportunity for a new product, service, or company, especially if it’s a problem many others have too. Trust me, there are no shortages of problems that need to be solved in the world, so get innovative and start coming up with solutions. This is a way to establish a solid foundation for your business.
Another way to generate a business idea is to look to the future. Try to seek out things that will become problems in the future. For instance, take Tesla for example. Elon Musk was able to recognize that while fuel is not an issue now, lack of fossil fuel will be a problem in the near future. Thus, electric cars will likely be the norm in the future. That is unless someone has a better idea in mind.
Appeal to Emotion
Believe it or not, most small businesses that are around today were derived as a result of appealing to human nature. I’m sure you’ve heard of the seven deadly sins ( lust, greed, gluttony, wrath, envy, pride, and sloth). Well according to experts, these emotions often drive the way we spend our money. Just think about the business you come across on any given day. Buffets play off of the fact people often like to indulge (gluttony). Services like Doordash play off the fact people are too lazy to get their own food (sloth). Hair salons play off the fact that most people desire to look good or even better than the rest (pride and envy). The list can go on and on, but you get the point. While most of these products and services are not needed for survival, people will adopt them as necessities based on pure emotion. Most human decisions are driven by emotions so their spending habits are often no different.
Improve Everyday Life
People are always looking for things to make their lives easier. This is why you can have much success creating a product or service that does just that. Again, in this case, the product or service itself does not have to be new, but you can look for ways to improve and make them even more convenient for customer use. For example, take something basic like a coffee maker which was already a common household product, then someone came up with the idea to automated the coffee maker with a timer. Thus, you no longer need to get up in the morning, start your coffee and wait, you can now set the timer the day before and wake up to the freshly brewed coffee in the morning.
Besides the convenience factor, you can also center your business ideas around creating something that takes away the pain and drag of doing “chore-like” tasks. For instance, Instacart is a service that has relieved people of their grocery store runs, making life just a little easier. It was an innovative way to help take some of the weight off of their customer’s shoulders by taking a simple household chore off their hands. The majority of people have multiple tasks that they have to do but really don’t want to. If you can identify these “chores” and resolve them, you’ll be able to get your business rolling. So take some time to ask yourself, what do you hate doing and how could you make it easier or more enjoyable?
Save People Money
People love to save money. It’s simple. Anytime you can produce a quality product or service that has a similar function to another that is widely used and save the customers money, you can create a pretty decent market. It may not be the most original way of doing business, but let’s be honest. The majority of people don’t have the luxury of buying from a company strictly based on their morals and values. This is why, if you can figure out how to save people money, it can be a solid business idea whether it’s new or not.
While there are a ton of business ideas that have yet to be discovered, trust me they won’t just fall out of the sky. If you want to build a successful and sustainable business, really give it some real thought. There are billions of people in this world that all have problems that need to be solved. Get creative and start finding the solutions. That’s how you create a solid foundation for your business. Remember, wealth isn’t derived from some get the rich quick scheme. So all of these people trying to convince you that getting rich overnight is an option, are sadly misguiding you. Real wealth comes from doing real business. Don’t short yourself with poor business ideas. Take your time, put on your thinking cap, get innovative and then go make a killing.
