Adventure Landing
Adventure Landing: A lot of work goes into starting a business: You need to draw up a business plan, find investors, get loans, and look for employees.
Before all that, however, you have to come up with your idea for a business.
This could be a new product, service, or method, but it has to be something that customers will pay money for.
Finding that great idea takes thought, creativity, and research.
If you’re looking to be an entrepreneur, keep the following in mind when trying to come up with your business idea.
Adventure Landing
Developing an Idea
Think about what goods or services would improve your life.
Keep a list of your personal strengths and weaknesses in mind.
When you look at that list, does anything come to mind that would improve your life?
Spend some time considering your own experiences.
With some time and creativity, you can probably identify several products or services that would help you.
Decide whether you’d like to provide a product or a service.
They both have advantages and challenges that you should consider before focusing on one or the other.
- For a new product, you’ll have to develop a good or improve upon an existing one, then invest in manufacturing to produce it.
- Producing a new product is expensive, but a successful product can be very lucrative.
- Providing a service will eliminate the need for developing and manufacturing a new product.
- However, you’ll probably have to hire more people since it will be tough to grow your business if you’re the only one providing a service.
- Both choices will involve marketing and advertising, so plan on investing time and money here no matter which you choose.
Adventure Landing
Identify a problem within the existing industry you are familiar with.
Build upon an existing business idea.
By taking an idea one step further than the current industry does, you can carve a niche for yourself in the market.
- Google is a great example of taking a good idea and improving it.
- When Google first started, there were plenty of other internet search engines.
- Google, however, developed an extremely accurate algorithm that improved the quality of search results.
Adventure Landing
Look towards the future.
You can do this by asking yourself what the next logical step is in a product line or in the evolution of a service that is provided.
- Since distance learning is becoming more popular, for example, you might think about starting a company that specializes in software that can help remote teachers.
- By looking at current trends and taking them a step further, you can arrive at an idea that will be ahead of its time and, potentially, revolutionize the market.
Conduct preliminary consumer research.
This can help you come up with an idea based on people’s wants and needs.
- Investigate the internet and see what common keywords or internet searches are.
- This will show you what people search for most often and this knowledge can spark an idea for you.
- Read Find The Most Searched Keywords for simple ways to do this.
- For more involved method of finding popular keywords, you could use a service like Google Adwords or Bing Ads. These also analyze search engines and find common searches.
Adventure Landing
Apply your skills to a different field.
Another way to come up with a new product or service is to use skills you’ve acquired elsewhere. Oftentimes, you can creatively apply skills learned elsewhere to improve a different field.
Leo Fender, for instance, worked as a radio repairman.
He used his skills in electronics and amplification to build the first electric guitars.
When considering your business ideas, take all of your skills into account.
You may have a certain talent that will revolutionize a different field.
Write down all your ideas.
Flip through it regularly to see if you can expand on any of the thinking you’ve captured.
- Though you can keep your notebook with you, you should consider inputting what you write to a computer.
- That way, if your notebook gets lost or damaged, you have a backup.
- Digital storage will also allow you to catalog your ideas more concisely and accurately.
Adventure Landing
Foster your creativity.
There are several ways you can stimulate your creativity that will help come up with ideas.
- Several studies have documented that walking helps stimulate brain activity, particularly creativity.
- Take a walk a few times a week, especially if you’re feeling stuck to benefit your health and spark creativity.
- Take your notebook with you on walks to write down any ideas you come up with.
- If you need ideas, explore a local store, preferably a department store with a lot of products.
- Then just walk the aisles and take note of the products you see. What do they offer people? What are their flaws?
Adventure Landing
- Also take note of what you don’t see, as this will give you an idea of what isn’t on the market that may be a salable product.
- Talk to people from diverse fields.
- If you’re trying to come up with new software, don’t only talk to fellow computer experts.
- Branch out and talk to people from different fields, especially fields that you aren’t familiar with. See how they use products or services to improve their lives.
- This will help you think outside the box and look at things from a different angle.
- Read Think ‘Outside of the Box’ for more ideas on creative thinking.
Take breaks.
Get plenty of sleep.
Evaluating Your Ideas
Weigh your strengths and weaknesses in relation to your plan.
You may have a great idea, but no real way to implement it.
Before moving on, think about if you could really follow through with this plan.
For example, if you think you could open a great restaurant, but have never worked in one before and never attended culinary school, this idea is pretty far out of reach.
Read Get Rid of Unrealistic Goals for more information on how you can get rid of goals and ideas that are too far out of reach, and how to make them more attainable.
Investigate if someone has already come up with your idea.
To avoid this, make sure you do thorough research and find out if your idea is truly original.
- Use an internet search engine first. Type in the service or product you have in mind.
- You may not get an exact match, so follow all leads to determine if someone has already started a business like yours.
- Search the US Trademark and Patent office as well.
- This is a complicated process that is much more difficult than doing an internet search.
- You may even need to talk to a lawyer who specializes in patent law to properly navigate this system.
Investigate your competition.
If you do find out someone has already come up with your idea, don’t panic.
Plenty of new businesses have a lot of competition when they start, and they beat it by providing a better service or product. Now you have to investigate your potential competition.
- Become a customer of the competition. Buy their product or service so you can see firsthand how they operate.
- This way, you can examine your competition closely and find ways to improve upon their business.
- Talk to the competition’s customers. Conduct formal or informal surveys of your competition’s customers.
- Ask them specifically what they’re satisfied and unsatisfied with so you can adjust your own business to their concerns.
- Look at your competition’s online presence. There may be review pages or blogs that discuss your competition.
- Read these carefully to find out if people are unhappy with anything your competition does.
Adventure Landing
Pitch your idea to family, friends, and colleagues.
Before investigating shoppers, consult with people who you know will tell you the truth.
Present them with your idea and tell them how it improves the current industry.
Ask if they would buy your product or service, and ask for honest answers.
This way you can get an early assessment of your idea from a few trusted individuals.
They can either encourage your idea, provide constructive criticism.
Or tell you if they don’t think your idea has a future.
Whatever the feedback, you need to hear it.
Adventure Landing
Talk to potential customers.
Once you’ve formulated what you think is a good idea and told a few close friends.
You need to go out and see if there is a market for you.
You can do several things to determine if anyone would actually patronize your business.
- Conduct interviews in person. Go to areas where people who might be interested in your business would be.
- If you’re developing a new kind of fishing lure, for example, go to several sporting goods stores and talk to people in the fishing section.
- Give a very brief description of your proposed business, and ask shoppers if they would be interested in that sort of business.
- Be sure to keep your interactions short- while some people may be interested in talking further, most will probably get annoyed if you take too much of their time.
- Send out surveys via email. There are easy ways to design a simple survey using a program like Google Forms.
- Try sending the survey to your personal contacts and asking them to distribute it among their own contacts.
Adventure Landing
Identify risks and obstacles.
There are a few business problems many start-ups will encounter, so keep the following in mind to get around your obstacles.
- Only work with people you trust.
- A bad partner or supplier can wreak havoc on your business.
- Avoid this problem by working with people you know you can trust.
- Always make sure you have enough financing before continuing.
- Many start-ups fail because of a lack of funding.
- To avoid debt or bankruptcy, avoid moving on with your idea if you lack funding.
- Be willing to change. If you establish your business successfully, the market can still change around you. Keep up with these changes to stay competitive.
- Move on from failure. Many start-ups fail. You have to understand that this doesn’t have to be the end, and you can continue with a better idea and better funding.
Determine if you have a viable plan.
Take all of them seriously to get a good feel for if you should continue with your plan.
- Take into account all of the interviewing and surveying you’ve done.
- Is there a market for your plan?
- Be honest with yourself here- don’t convince yourself that there is a market if only a few people were interested.
- If no one will buy your idea or product, move on to another one.
- What’s your level of competition. If competition will be stiff, you’ll have to work hard to outdo it.
Adventure Landing
- Take some time to define how exactly you’ll be better than your competition to give yourself a fighting chance.
- Do a cost analysis of your plan. Even if there is a good market for your idea, you have to find out if it’s economically viable.
- I start-up and maintenance costs are very high, perhaps you should reconsider.
- Also, think about where will you get financing.
- Find out how much your plan will cost, and how much you can expect to earn from it.
- Read Do a Cost Analysis for more information about conducting this kind of study.
Rank your i£deas. https://businesshab.com/
If you have more than one idea, rank them in order from best to worst.
Subject them to all the previous questions and see how they perform.
Then put them in order starting with #1, the best.
That way you can make sure you’re focusing your efforts on your best idea.
Ideas that are further down the list should either be scrapped or substantially improved before you try implementing them.
Making Your Idea a Reality
Choose your best idea.
After carefully evaluating and weighing the different ideas you have, you should come up with one that is your best.
This should be the one that you focus your efforts on.
After choosing your best idea, start implementing steps to make it a reality.
Decide your business structure.
There are several different structures your business can take on.
Each one has unique characteristics that will affect how you write your business plan, as well as your legal status.
Some different options are a sole proprietorship, a limited liability corporation, and a partnership, to name a few.
See the U.S. Small Business Association site for a full breakdown of these options and others to decide which one is best for you.
Develop a business plan.
When you’ve decided on which idea you’ll focus your efforts on, you’ll need a business plan before moving on.
A business plan defines your company, the service it provides and projects the company’s potential costs and earnings.
This will not only help you focus and organize your own ideas, but it is also essential for investors to see how profitable your business can be.
Read Write a Business Plan for detailed instructions on creating an optimum plan.
Adventure Landing
Find funding for your business.
Both have strengths and weaknesses, and you’ll probably end up using a combination of both.
- Banks: You can get a loan from a bank for a few months to a few years, depending on the type of loan.
- This can cover your opening costs and your first few months of operating expenses.
- Private investors: These can be friends, family, or other business owners interested in making an investment.
- Define whether these people are just providing a loan that you will pay back with interest, or if they’re actually buying into your company.
- Draw up a contract defining the terms of your agreement and have it notarized to prevent problems in the future.
Adventure Landing
More tips
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Another viable option is to let your imagination run wild at first, but then bring it back to reality during the idea elimination process.
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Don’t be afraid to come up with a few bad ideas. You’ll probably have multiple ideas that don’t go anywhere before you actually have one you can work with. The key is to persevere.
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Make sure people are interested in your business. It won’t go well if people aren’t interested in it.
Conclusion
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Many start-up businesses end up failing.
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Be sure to keep your day job until your business grows to a point that you can support yourself on it, or you could end up in a tight financial spot if the business fails.
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If you do experience failure, don’t be afraid to try again.