How to come up with a Business Idea

Shwetha Krish

4 years ago

Starting a business can be daunting without a concrete idea to work on. But how do we come up with an idea and how to get started.

Do you think only talented people can run a business?

Absolutely not!

Are you of the opinion that you need to be smart, tech-savvy and have the right connections to start a business?

The answer is again NO!

Well all you need is an Idea to start with and an intention to make it into a flourishing business and most importantly to keep your clients’ or customers’ needs on the top.

Are you wondering, ‘I don’t have an idea and I don’t know what to start!’?

Let’s take it step by step!

Don’t worry! We shall get to the bottom of this.

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First things first let’s look into 3 scenarios-

Scenario 1 –

A random idea may just pop up in your head. It could be regarding a new product which could solve a problem or a service that you could cater to.

There you have it! But then you go ahead and research online wondering is nything similar exists. Well yes, there is.

In this scenario you can find out what’s different and unique on the idea that you thought of from the ones which already exist in the market or are being provided as a service.

You feel that,’If they could have made the product like this or regarding the service if they had made sure on these things then it would be perfect!’

There you have a better solution to a particular product or service – That could be your BUSINESS IDEA!

Scenario 2-

You have been an expert in a particular field and have years of experience working on a particular product or service. So you do know the loopholes or certain aspects where the product or service can be made better.

This could be a Business IDEA where you could build on improving the product or service you are already aware of.

Scenario 3-

Well, here you want to start a business and don’t know how to go about it.

You may have few vague ideas but you don’t know if they are feasible.

There are a few techniques you can use to get a concrete IDEA!

Let’s get started and explore the various techniques for Idea Generation-

MINDMAPPING

This is a very interesting technique to map a particular concept and its connections with other concepts. You can get creative with this by using crayons, sketchpens and and pointers!

e.g: My first Mindmap which I tried was with figuring out all my skill-sets and the career avenues.

I clearly remember that I was stuck in deciding on one avenue that would be by means of living. And I struggled to narrow down to one as I had varied skillset.
Then I drew a Mindmap with the main task as ‘Deciding on a feasible Career Avenue.’
Later on I listed / drew my skills surrounding the main task.
Then I put across the career avenues against each skill. It looked like a spider web
With this, I was able to figure out cohesively on what could be a good career prospect easily!

Isn’t that easy and so useful?

A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information. A mind map is hierarchical and shows relationships among pieces of the whole. It is often created around a single concept, drawn as an image in the center of a blank page, to which associated representations of ideas such as images, words and parts of words are added. Major ideas are connected directly to the central concept, and other ideas branch out from those major ideas.
Wikipedia

BRAINSTORMING-

This is a very easy technique as well.

You can list down the problem at hand and try to come up with as many solutions as possible. This process can be done individually or in a group. Working with a group of people can help to refine your solution and also look into the aspects of feasibility of the Idea.

Here the problem can be the one that you are facing or any problem of an existing product or service.

This will help you to come up with a new idea altogether or a refined workable idea which solves the problem of a particular existing product or service.

SCAMPER-

SCAMPER was developed by Bob Eberie, the acronym stands for

(S) substitute – How can an existing product or service be substituted with another thing e.g: Contact lens can be substituted for spectacles

(C) combine – How can an existing feature be combined with another? e.g: An Apple Watch combines the clock, heart rate monitor.

(A) adapt – How can an existing product or service be adapted or changed to function better? e.g: Content Management Systems has the feature to adapt to a mobile phone as well as a desktop version.

(M) modify – How can the look and feel of a product be changed? e.g: A restaurant can change what it offers and can also change the mode of serving the customers

(P) put to another use – How else can this product be used? e.g: Food waste can be used as a compost

(E) eliminate – How can the product be toned down or some features or accessories could be eliminated? e.g: Dell manufactured the laptops and sold it directly to the customers, they eliminated the intermediary!

(R) reverse – How can the sequence be changed and if it is does it become more efficient? e.g: Mc Donalds started the concept of Pay first and then take your order.

Well with this technique one can come up with ideas by using 7 different perspectives.