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*Look towards the bottom of thread to see examples of real business ideas*
Let's talk about coming up with business ideas.
I see a lot of people struggling to find some business idea, or are looking for the perfect idea.
First off, MJ talks about this in his book and outlines 13 ways to come up with ideas, so I’d go check that out.
I’m going to focus on the first thing he mentions in his book about idea creation. Then I will give you several examples I came up with within hours by following this advice.
Learning to understand the language of the market.
Every single day you are presented with problems to solve, ways to create value. The problem is you aren't going through your day with the problem solving mindset.
You need to start shifting your mindset to identifying the problems you encounter and then start thinking about how they could be solved, or improved.
Most people, when encountered with a problem at work, will acknowledge to themselves that it sucks. Then the process stops. They don’t continue the process and start questioning how it could be better, or if there's a better way to do it.
Or they will say, it was better when we did it like this, or this equipment would be better if it didn't or did do this.
But then the process stops. They take no action on actually doing anything about it, or don’t believe they could actually do anything about it. They simply move on with their day.
This is where you need to be different. You need to shift your thinking so you are constantly looking for these problems and then thinking out how it could be solved and you need to believe that you can solve it.
Don’t worry about how hard it would be or how impossible it seems, that's good. That shouldn't scare you, its your friend.
Entrepreneurship is a process, not an event. You solve problems through process, you don’t just figure it out in a day. If you figure it out in a day, is it really a problem that needs solving? The harder and longer the process to solve it, the better it is, that means it provides more value once you solve it.
Start listening for people complaining. Start listening to yourself when you start complaining. Make it a habit. When you hear someone complain, ask them what problems they are having with what they’re doing and ask what would make it better.
IMO, the hard part of entrepreneurship isn't finding good business ideas, that's easy. The hard part is taking action on them and actually executing them.
Here are a few examples of business ideas I came up with at work today. *Not meant to be an idea thread, just examples*
Where I work at, we have a lot of people come into our office that have to check in everyday. The software that we use is extremely inefficient. The process also involves manual labor to be performed to complete the process. Often, it can take an hour or more just to check one person in. It also cost my company a ton of money in hourly wages because employees have to sit and work on the process instead of doing something else.
Many people at my work constantly complain about this and the people we are checking in constantly complain that its taking too long. My employer complains about it.
Ding ding ding. Perfect idea right there. Easy. Took me less than 30 minutes to find it.
Solving this problem would create value for my employer by saving them money and decreasing wait times. It would provide value to my coworkers by decreasing their workload. It would also create value for the customers we have by decreasing their wait times. If I offered this solution to my employer would it honestly be a hard sale? Not at all, because it creates real value for everyone. This solution could also be sold to other companies using the old software.
The checkout software we use has the same exact problems as the check in software we use. Ding ding ding. I could create two different softwares that replace the old ones and sell two products, or I can create a software that replaces both processes and simplifies the process.
Now I don’t know a thing about coding or how to fix the problem. This is the hard part, this is the process. I have to spend TIME and figure out how to do it. It isn't something I can just solve in a day (event)
Another problem I noticed. My company waste excessive amounts of paper which cost tons of money every month. Ding ding ding. Easy to find a problem to solve. Once again the problem is easy, the hard part is execution.
Another problem I found. A piece of equipment we use, which runs on software, constantly glitches and crashes. It causes my employer to lose excessive amounts of money because it sets everything back when this happens. Ding ding ding. A better developed software would fix this problem and would be an easy sale because it provides value.
The same piece of equipment also requires disposable pieces of equipment that have to be thrown away after one use. Ding ding ding. Could I create a new piece that doesn't have to be thrown away and would save my company money each month? Could I design my own equipment that doesn't require the disposable piece and then sell it to companies using the old machine? Yes I could.
I could easily go on and on about the problems I have found just today at work, all which would provide huge value once solved.
Each of these ideas take huge effort and action (process). It wasn't hard at all to find the problems.
So to all of the people struggling with ideas. Why are you shooting yourself in the foot trying to figure out the easiest part of business? Problems are not hard to find. Its beyond easy. They are everywhere around you every single day.
None of the things I found are some groundbreaking innovative idea that would disrupt the industry. They are problems I noticed that aren't being solved by the current products on the market. You don’t need some groundbreaking idea, don’t look for one. Let the market tell you what the problems are, work on fixing those.
Hope this provides value to my fellow entrepreneurs out there struggling with business ideas
Let's talk about coming up with business ideas.
I see a lot of people struggling to find some business idea, or are looking for the perfect idea.
First off, MJ talks about this in his book and outlines 13 ways to come up with ideas, so I’d go check that out.
I’m going to focus on the first thing he mentions in his book about idea creation. Then I will give you several examples I came up with within hours by following this advice.
Learning to understand the language of the market.
Every single day you are presented with problems to solve, ways to create value. The problem is you aren't going through your day with the problem solving mindset.
You need to start shifting your mindset to identifying the problems you encounter and then start thinking about how they could be solved, or improved.
Most people, when encountered with a problem at work, will acknowledge to themselves that it sucks. Then the process stops. They don’t continue the process and start questioning how it could be better, or if there's a better way to do it.
Or they will say, it was better when we did it like this, or this equipment would be better if it didn't or did do this.
But then the process stops. They take no action on actually doing anything about it, or don’t believe they could actually do anything about it. They simply move on with their day.
This is where you need to be different. You need to shift your thinking so you are constantly looking for these problems and then thinking out how it could be solved and you need to believe that you can solve it.
Don’t worry about how hard it would be or how impossible it seems, that's good. That shouldn't scare you, its your friend.
Entrepreneurship is a process, not an event. You solve problems through process, you don’t just figure it out in a day. If you figure it out in a day, is it really a problem that needs solving? The harder and longer the process to solve it, the better it is, that means it provides more value once you solve it.
Start listening for people complaining. Start listening to yourself when you start complaining. Make it a habit. When you hear someone complain, ask them what problems they are having with what they’re doing and ask what would make it better.
IMO, the hard part of entrepreneurship isn't finding good business ideas, that's easy. The hard part is taking action on them and actually executing them.
Here are a few examples of business ideas I came up with at work today. *Not meant to be an idea thread, just examples*
Where I work at, we have a lot of people come into our office that have to check in everyday. The software that we use is extremely inefficient. The process also involves manual labor to be performed to complete the process. Often, it can take an hour or more just to check one person in. It also cost my company a ton of money in hourly wages because employees have to sit and work on the process instead of doing something else.
Many people at my work constantly complain about this and the people we are checking in constantly complain that its taking too long. My employer complains about it.
Ding ding ding. Perfect idea right there. Easy. Took me less than 30 minutes to find it.
Solving this problem would create value for my employer by saving them money and decreasing wait times. It would provide value to my coworkers by decreasing their workload. It would also create value for the customers we have by decreasing their wait times. If I offered this solution to my employer would it honestly be a hard sale? Not at all, because it creates real value for everyone. This solution could also be sold to other companies using the old software.
The checkout software we use has the same exact problems as the check in software we use. Ding ding ding. I could create two different softwares that replace the old ones and sell two products, or I can create a software that replaces both processes and simplifies the process.
Now I don’t know a thing about coding or how to fix the problem. This is the hard part, this is the process. I have to spend TIME and figure out how to do it. It isn't something I can just solve in a day (event)
Another problem I noticed. My company waste excessive amounts of paper which cost tons of money every month. Ding ding ding. Easy to find a problem to solve. Once again the problem is easy, the hard part is execution.
Another problem I found. A piece of equipment we use, which runs on software, constantly glitches and crashes. It causes my employer to lose excessive amounts of money because it sets everything back when this happens. Ding ding ding. A better developed software would fix this problem and would be an easy sale because it provides value.
The same piece of equipment also requires disposable pieces of equipment that have to be thrown away after one use. Ding ding ding. Could I create a new piece that doesn't have to be thrown away and would save my company money each month? Could I design my own equipment that doesn't require the disposable piece and then sell it to companies using the old machine? Yes I could.
I could easily go on and on about the problems I have found just today at work, all which would provide huge value once solved.
Each of these ideas take huge effort and action (process). It wasn't hard at all to find the problems.
So to all of the people struggling with ideas. Why are you shooting yourself in the foot trying to figure out the easiest part of business? Problems are not hard to find. Its beyond easy. They are everywhere around you every single day.
None of the things I found are some groundbreaking innovative idea that would disrupt the industry. They are problems I noticed that aren't being solved by the current products on the market. You don’t need some groundbreaking idea, don’t look for one. Let the market tell you what the problems are, work on fixing those.
Hope this provides value to my fellow entrepreneurs out there struggling with business ideas
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