Whether you plan to start a business or already have one, it is important to have an uncanny talent for spotting new ideas. Creative thinking and brilliant idea generation are two ways to continue differentiating your business vis-a-vis your competitors and raising your business to a higher level.
HOW DO YOU GENERATE NEW IDEAS?
Spotting opportunities are all about the right mindset. You need to be in the ”idea-spotting mode” everyday so you can turn simple everyday experiences into opportunities. A starting point for this would be finding a solution to problems shared by a number of your friends and family that a current product/service cannot fully satisfy.
Observe your surroundings and listen to people. When you’re in the idea-hunting mindset, you’d be surprised how many ideas will go your way. Start reading books, magazines like Entrepreneur, websites, newspapers and the like. Read between the lines; some ideas come about from current events or even advertisements.
By looking through advertisements, you can detect which industry or products are being pushed by bigger companies. Usually, these are products that have high potential for the current year. Look into the insight/ habit behind the product. What consumer need is their product trying to satisfy? With the influx of beauty products, are the Filipinas becoming more beauty-conscious? Think about it.
Another concrete example of insight turned innovation is the ”drive thru” concept. This idea came about because of the insight that consumers find it inconvenient to park, get down, fall in line, order, wait for your order and table.
Thus, the fast food industry innovated to make it more convenient and created the concept of drive thru. In the US, it’s also common practice for fast food chains to have areas where the cars can park, waiters/waitresses in roller skates can take your order and then deliver it straight to your car.
In the interest of getting more consumer unsightly big companies pay research companies millions to facilitate focus group discussions, interviews and surveys just to get the right insight to provide a new product variant. In the hair care industry, for example, how many times do you see shoppers pop up the cover of shampoo to smell it before deciding what to buy? It’s because Filipinos are really into fragrances.
Thus, the big companies would come up with new fragrances from time to time. But you don’t have to spend millions to get an idea; you just need to talk to your consumers.
To help you spot an opportunity further, Asian Institute of Management
Professor Francisco Bernardo III recommends that you ask yourself what you can do well better than others, what talent or skill you can turn in to a business or even skills or contacts you have gained while you were working. Talk to friends and colleagues about happenings, new products and innovations. You’d be surprised how many ideas pop up in discussions.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to force yourself to think of a revolutionary idea that will change the world. A lot of successful products and services are merely improvements of existing ones.
Take popcorn. As noted by Ricardo Cuna of Fiorgelato Ice Cream: ”Popcorn has undergone a lot of permutations. Entrepreneurs have put twists to it-some made new flavors, others turned it into a health product by making it fat-free and with less cholesterol. But if you look at it, they are all just popcorn.”
How do you assess and select an opportunity? Start by checking out businesses similar to your business idea. Ask as many questions as you can think of: who are the main customers, what is the main source of business, what are the risks and challenges, how many businesses offer the same product or service, what are the other product/service substitutes, what are the main business day-to-day operations, do you have the capabilities (money, people, specific skills, etc) to handle the business. Think about what would make your business different, why customers would buy your product. After exhausting all questions, don’t get overwhelmed by the influx of information. Just relax, breathe and take things one step at a time. This is part of the whole process.
Here’s some advice from Entrepreneur Magazine’s
The Ultimate Guide to Starting Your own Business:
Again, ask questions, get feedback: will they buy it, how much are they willing to pay, do they have suggestions
.
Source: Masigasig Magazine / Words By Alexandra Young
Posted by Manuel
Manuel Montala was an online entrepreneur who enjoys blogging about entrepreneurship and gathering information for his blog to help budding entrepreneurs. You can also reach him on twitter: http://twitter.com/mmontala
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This post makes a geat point about being in the right mindset to recognize business ideas. A story I read a while back described an insect expert that was sitting on a part bench with a friend. The expert asked his friend if he could hear the cricket in the bacground. the friend could not because there were a lot of people around. To this the scientist responded, “that’s because you have not trained your ears to hear the cricket”. Having said that, the expert through a quarter on the ground and watched many people, including his friend, immediately look in the direction of the sound.
Once you get yourself in the right mind set and train your mind to sot business ideas, you will find hem everywhere.
Bob
http://www.entrepreneurideaguide.com
Incorporating a business is an important part of starting a business as well.
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