Editor’s note: This article was first published in August 2013; time references such as ‘sixty years ago’ are counted from that year.
Today’s business scene has great entrepreneurs whose minds overflow with big, brilliant ideas. They are always asking, watching and spotting opportunities. Contrary to what we might think, not all of them find one idea and focus on it until it becomes a business. Very often there are dozens of possible ideas, of which perhaps one or two make it, while a dozen others are discarded.
The problem many people have is focusing on the business idea itself, when many business owners advise focusing on a problem or a service and thinking about the solution. That solution may hold a business. After that, we should carry out the essential market research and study the feasibility of our business project.
So, is there a technique for manufacturing ideas? Sometimes it looks as if that great entrepreneur who succeeded quickly had come up with the idea by chance or by luck. And it is true that ideas often arrive that way, although according to Alan Hall, an entrepreneur and venture capital investor, business ideas can be manufactured from scratch in a few steps.
1. There are endless ideas all around us.
Business ideas are everywhere. You just have to pay attention. They are always within everyone’s reach. There may even be original products already on the market whose creators are not getting all the profit they should out of them. The big idea may come from a company somewhere else in the world. It may be innovative and not yet available in our country. In that case, it would all come down to importing it and adapting it to our market. For example:
Ideas can be simple or complex, small or big. Sometimes the idea lies in our hobby, sometimes in something we are truly passionate about, and at other times in a mix of the two.
For people who are short of ideas, Alan recommends visiting a university to see some of the projects students are working on, and going to startup competitions, since that could make the light bulb go on.
2. Knowledge.
The more we know about a subject, the easier it will be to find those ideas, which generally grow out of something we already know. Inventors and great idea generators tend to have one thing in common: they are constantly studying and learning.
Sometimes ideas come simply from listening to customers. An employee may see a business opportunity in automating an intensive, costly business process for the company, perhaps by solving it with a piece of software that could be sold to every other company with the same problem. (Read: What is the perfect business or job for me?)
3. Connecting the dots.
Alan explains that, in his view, genius, or idea generation, is an epiphany that comes from connecting several different but related facts which, once joined, create something new that has never been seen before. He gives the example of his uncle, H. Tracy Hall, a researcher who 60 years ago invented and sold artificial diamonds. His idea came from noticing a few known facts:
- Mother Nature creates natural diamonds in abundance.
- Through a chemical process.
- Intense pressure.
- Significant heat.
- All of them work together intensely to change the internal structure of carbon atoms.
From these facts he formed the idea of coupling a natural chemical process with a powerful physical device to make real diamonds by replicating the force and action inside the earth. Basically, his idea allowed him to grow diamonds. The idea made him a lot of money, and today tons of artificial diamonds are sold all over the world for cutting, polishing and drilling.
4. We have to test our ideas.
Just as a problem can lead to an opportunity, with our project idea any problem can lead to failure, and we need to know that as soon as possible so we don’t waste time and can move on to the next idea.
For Alan, great business ideas ultimately succeed by being proven with a method similar to a scientific discovery: “We have a prediction. Our product can satisfy X. Once we test it or do the market research, we must follow it with the collection, analysis and interpretation of data. Not just satisfaction data, but feasibility data.”
5. The timing of the idea.
Some innovative ideas may meet users’ needs today but not tomorrow, or they may have been very profitable five months ago but no longer are. An idea is worth nothing until you start selling it. There are magnificent products and services on the market that many customers would not pay for. Perhaps we got the approach wrong, perhaps it needs a change, or perhaps our idea is not viable. In that case, you have to discard it quickly and move on to the next one.
In short:
- Ideas are everywhere: find yours.
- Look at the problems and needs in your surroundings. They exist.
- Building on knowledge, imagine solutions to every problem. That is how ideas are born.
- Always be passionate about your ideas. They are yours.
- Test your ideas. Do they meet expectations, and would customers pay?
- Is the market ready for my product or service?
A very similar article is Stephen Key: from idea to business in 11 steps.
And if you need ideas:
- 10 internet business ideas that work in other countries
- 11 profitable micro-business ideas with little or no investment
- 6 business ideas for young entrepreneurs
Featured image: Materialscientist . Subsequent edits by Materialscientist, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
